


Summer in Cabin 7A

by ImagineYourself



Series: Black Dog [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, M/M, Romance, Supernatural Elements, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-10
Updated: 2013-06-27
Packaged: 2017-12-04 20:55:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 37,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/714991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImagineYourself/pseuds/ImagineYourself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean is excited to spend his summer at camp, especially so when he develops a quick attraction to his cabin-mate. But things start to get weird around camp, and he constantly feels like he's being watched. That, plus the ever present harassment, may just make things take a dangerous turn this summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (2016) Oh my god please don't read this it's utter trash and so poorly written I'm sorry that past me was such fucking garbage I hate this fic and everything I ever wrote for it. Someday if I really get around to it I might rewrite the entire thing but for now, this is such fucking dirt that I want to bury it forever.
> 
> (2013)Preface notes for the entire story:
> 
> Instances of sexual situations will occur, however, some may be non-con, though there is no actual rape. 
> 
> A couple things on characters: Lucifer is portrayed as the genuine asshole type, with almost no mention of his sarcastic and more emotional sides. Michael is portrayed also as a general asshole, however he shows different emotional sides than ever revealed in his brief time in the show.

_There were six of them in total. They all sat around the campfire, eager young faces lit by the flickering yellow light and blinking in the sooty heat that emanated from the roaring flame. A couple of them had long sticks that they would occasionally shove marshmallows on to roast. But mostly they just stared, wide-eyed at the one talking._

_The seventh._

_“Let me tell you a story. It’s a true story, I know because I was there. Some of it I saw, some of it was told to me by the others, and some of it is left to imagination as to what really happened,” Sam told them all quietly, eyes shadowed by the fringes of his long hair as he glared around the campfire. Jo. Ash. Gabe. Adam. Garth. Chuck. They all watched him expectantly, not even caring to break in that they were all thirteen and definitely too old for scary campfire stories._

_“It all started here, in this very camp, last summer. Cabin 7A.”_

_“That cabin number doesn’t exist…” Chuck said, interrupting Sam. The storyteller sent him a hard glare and he dropped his head with a blush._

_“We all know that. But it was there last year, trust me. Why else do you think the cabin numbers go from 6A to 8B? There used to be one there. But they tore it down after what happened.”_

_“Wanna marshmallow?” Garth whispered into Chuck’s ear, thinking he was being quiet. He glanced up though as Sam cleared his throat, narrowing his hazel eyes at the skinny boy. Garth smiled nervously and stuck another marshmallow on the end of his stick, pushing it into the fire. “Sorry,” he mumbled, biting his lips to hide his grin._

_“Anyway, if we’re all done interrupting…”_

_“Just get on with the damn story, Sam!” Jo muttered irritably, shifting on the log she was sharing with Ash, who looked inclined to put his arm around her, but decided against it. Gabe nudged Sam’s side, eyes gazing expectantly at him and waited for him to continue._

_Sam sighed. “So, it all started when the camp opened and everyone was getting dropped off by their parents and assigned cabins and all that jazz you all know because we went through the same thing when we got here last week. But there was this boy, fifteen, blue eyes, black hair, and we’re going to call him Cas. And another boy, sixteen, blonde hair, green eyes, and we’re going to call him Dean.”_

_“Isn’t that your brother’s name?”  Adam piped up from across the fire. He shut up after a legendary glare from Sam._

_“Doesn’t matter. That’s what we’re calling him.”_

_“Sam… Cas is my brother’s girlfriend’s brother’s nickname. And he went here last year…” Gabe whispered into Sam’s ear, afraid to let anybody else hear him. Sam glanced at him and made a shushing sound, telling him to be quiet about it through his eyes. Gabe got the message and contented himself with sucking on a lollipop he’d produced from nowhere, hiding a smile because he suspected what story Sam was telling, though he hadn’t heard it himself._

_“Dean and Cas, that’s what we’re calling them. No but’s. Now listen! So, these two boys arrived at different times, never having met each other, but they were assigned the same cabin. 7A. It was the last cabin to be filled for the boys and there was only the two of them together in that cabin…”_

* * *

 

 

 

“Damnit, Mom! My hair is perfectly fine. It really doesn’t matter anyway. By the time I’m done here I’ll just be a mess again.” Dean huffed and crossed his arms over his chest as Mary fussed over him. John finally closed the trunk of their car and handed Dean his black duffel, who swung it over his shoulder.

“Behave, son, while you’re gone!” John told him, a smile adorning his features.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, Dad,” Dean replied, being pulled into a hug from his father. Mary soon took her turn and kissed his forehead before letting him go. Dean sulkily blushed from the attention, he was almost seventeen for God’s sake, but secretly he liked it.

“Dean! Don’t steal all the attention!” Sam told him jokingly as he came over from where he’d been greeting his friend Brady. He received a laugh from their parents and his own hugs before the two got back into the car and waved as they left their boys on the grounds of the summer camp.

It was a five week deal, something they’d signed up for through school and only went to because their parents wanted them to get out during the summer and not just hang around at home doing absolutely nothing like they’d done the previous summer. Dean was looking forward to it more than Sam. He was eager for a chance to show off his outdoor skills and maybe even pick up a chick or two during the stay. Sam on the other hand would have rather stayed home to do his summer reading for school, but had joined when his best friend Brady said that he was going.

A lot of people from their school were there, but also a lot from other schools. The whole camp was made up of only about two hundred kids, though, aged twelve through seventeen, and about twenty adults. Just glancing around the boys could see they were in completely different territory than they were used to. They headed towards the reception cabin to be assigned a bunk. There were fourteen cabins in all, 1-7A for boys and 8-14B for the girls. Without a full roster that year, they had two cabins empty for the girls and Dean was luckily placed in the very last one for the boys with just one other guy. He prayed the guy wouldn’t be a total loser.

They made their way across the grounds, taking in where the mess hall was, the rec cabin, and figured they’d be shown everything else that evening after the introduction ceremony. Dean dropped off his brother at cabin 3A and went off to his own, finding it empty and figuring his roomie would be there soon. There were eight sets of bunk beds in each cabin, and Dean took the top of the one furthest from the door, using the bottom bed to toss his duffel onto. Each cabin was equipped with its own little bathroom consisting of a toilet and a sink with a shower separated by a door. Dean took the opportunity to test the facilities and relieved himself before sitting on his bunk, pulling out an Ipod to listen to some classic rock while he waited for his roomie.

It took only two Creedence Clearwater songs before the door opened and a lanky boy entered, an unsure expression on his face. Dean pulled his earbuds from his ears and jumped down to greet him when he stopped unexpectedly.

“Damn…” he muttered slowly, eyes wide as he took in his roomie. He had soft-looking black curls that stuck out at odd angles, giving him a look like he’d just gotten out of bed. But when he turned to look at Dean, what struck him most were those bright, deep, _gorgeous_ blue eyes of his. Dean realized he was staring after a moment and flushed slightly. “Uh, hi,” he said meekly, feeling very out of character.

“Hi,” the boy replied shyly, glancing around. “So we’re the only two in this cabin?”

“Yeah,” Dean replied, his eyes moving away from the boy. “I’m Dean, by the way.”

“Castiel. Nice to meet you.”

“Castiel?”

The boy looked at the floor. “My sister calls me Cas, if that’s better.”

“Cas it is, then,” Dean said with a slight laugh. “Uh… Well I took that bunk,” he motioned at the one he’d been sitting on, “but I guess you get any other one you want.”

Cas nodded and moved around a little before choosing the one just two down from Dean’s own. It was in the corner of the room and Dean had eyed it as well, but he liked being away from the door for some reason. Dean picked up his Ipod again, glancing at the time.

“Shit, we’ve gotta be at the thing in five minutes. I guess you’ll have to unpack later.” Dean gave an apologetic grimace to Cas who just nodded and followed him out the door. Dean locked it behind them, not deciding yet whether to trust the other campers and leave their cabin unlocked and not taking chances the first day.

They walked together, with a somewhat awkward silence between them, and eventually made it to the mess hall where everyone else was already gathered. Dean picked out Sam in the crowd and left Cas’ side in favor of his brother’s.

“Hey, meet your roomie?” Sam asked when Dean laid a hand on his shoulder to let him know he was there in the crowd.

“Yeah.”

“What’s he like?”

“He’s cool, I guess.” And hot. Really, really freaking hot. But Dean didn’t add that. His brother had no idea he was bisexual, and he was planning on keeping it that way. At least for a while. After all, he’d really only figured that out over the past year. “What about you? Any douches?”

“No, they all seem nice so far. Plus I got the same cabin as Brady!”

“Awesome.”

Brady took that moment to appear at Sam’s elbow. He nodded a hello at Dean and they all looked up at the mini stage set up in the back where they were all currently crowded, having to stand close instead of sitting at benches because they didn’t have microphones at the camp.

“Ladies and gents, welcome to Lawrence District Summer Camp! We hope you’ve all made proper sleeping arrangements and if anyone has any issues, please feel free to talk to me or any other of the counselors. Now, after my little speech, we’ll have all of you sit with your cabins at the designated tables and get to know everybody, and after supper we’ll separate into groups to tour the grounds!” The woman speaking was middle-aged with dark hair and a friendly smile. She was the head counselor, Gwen Campbell or something. Dean tuned out as she went over her “little speech” talking about the activities and rules of the camp. The only thing he did pay attention to was the nine o’clock curfew, which he mentally groaned at. Late nights around campfires were _awesome._

Instead of listening, Dean found himself glancing around for Cas, who he found towards the back of the congregation. A moment later, Gwen’s speech rolled to a close and everyone began moving to find their tables, which were marked by cabin numbers. Dean quickly followed Cas to where the dark-haired boy had already located their table and was sitting at it. Dean sat across from him, once again trying not to stare at those impossibly blue eyes. He didn’t have to fight for long, though, as they were soon called up to get in line for food. It was a buffet style serving area and Dean helped himself to the offered burger and fries, layering ketchup heavily on both before taking his seat again. Cas, he noticed, had only taken some spaghetti and bread.

They ate quietly, neither very inclined to speak first. The air was filled with the sounds of eating and talking as cabins got to know each other. Dean glanced around, finding a few familiar faces nearby, none of which he was happy to see. He also caught eyes with Lisa and completely ignored Bela who was sitting next to her at 11B and obviously hoping to grab Dean’s attention. When would she ever get that Dean wasn’t interested in her and hadn’t been for the past year she’d been chasing him.

“So… what school are you from?” Dean eventually asked when he was just playing with his fries and Cas was obviously done eating, too.

“Lawrence High.”

“Whaaa? Me too! How come I’ve never seen you before?”

“We have no classes together. I’m a year younger than you.” Cas’ answer threw Dean for a loop. He’d been sure Cas was older than him. He had that… mature look about him.

“Oh, I see,” he finally said. “Why’d you decide to come here for the summer?”

Cas shrugged. “My father wanted me to. He’s one of the counselors.”

“Really? Which one?”

“The balding assbutt one named Zach.”

Dean didn’t even bother smothering his laughter. “You seriously just called your dad an assbutt?”

Cas furrowed his brow. “I was trying to give an accurate description.”

Dean just laughed harder, wrapping his face in his arms to hide his laughter and aiming it at the table and try not to attract so much attention to himself. “Yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” he answered after he’d calmed, knowing who Cas was talking about and feeling a little sorry for him. When his eyes found Cas’ again, the boy was smiling slightly at his laughter. Dean liked his smile, and he immediately felt himself blush against his will.

Fortunately, he was saved, again, by one of the counselor’s coming over to their table and announcing they would be paired with cabin 6A for the tour and were led off around the grounds. Dean stayed sort of near Cas as neither of them knew anyone in 6A and Dean was reluctant to let the boy out of his sight. He didn’t really know why, but he had the suspicion that he was starting to like Cas. And that would be a problem.

They were let go almost an hour later, after the sun had sunk far below the horizon and Dean was yawning, bored already. There hadn’t been much to see, anyway, just a giant climbing tree, some other big trees, a few obstacle courses, some more big trees, a lake, even more big trees, and a huge amphitheater that would seat everyone living at the camp comfortably. Dean wasn’t really all that impressed, but he was still looking forward to being there. Even more so with the prospect of his new roomie…

Wait, what? Dean shook his head, trying to clear out those thoughts as he and Cas returned to their cabin. It was only about eight o’clock, but Dean was beat and quickly said goodnight before getting ready for bed and climbing in to his bunk, curling up under his blanket and thanking God that Cas couldn’t read his thoughts.


	2. Chapter 2

“You two will be with cabin 6A for all group activities, but you’ll still be staying in your cabin since we can’t put in any more beds in any other room,” Gwen said to Dean and Cas as they sat in the mess hell for breakfast. “You can join them at meals if you want, too, or not, whatever works.” She shrugged good-naturedly and the boys thanked her before returning to their pancakes. Dean wasn’t really looking forward to being with the other guys; they seemed like assholes, just being loud and obnoxious and obscene without care.

The day before, they’d learned the names of the head honchos of 6A, Michael, Luke, and Crowley. The trio didn’t seem to get along well at all, but they were devastatingly good at pranks and messing around with everyone else, sneering as younger kids walked by and ogling the pretty girls when they passed. Dean made a mental note as he finished off his pancakes to make sure and keep his cabin door locked whenever the boys were gone. And to try and stay off the trio’s bad side, but that didn’t seem likely considering they’d sneered malevolently when they heard the two would be joining their cabin.

After breakfast, the entire congregation was ushered to the giant amphitheater to go over safety protocol and other boring stuff that Dean didn’t really pay attention to. He was standing near Sam, having found his brother in the crowd by the abnormal vertical proportions of the kid. He was taller than Dean and wasn’t even thirteen yet! Dean felt a little bad about leaving Cas all along, but once the assembly was over he caught up with his cabin-mate. The kids were all given mostly free reign over the compound for the day, the higher-ups wanting to give everyone the chance to settle in before the real fun began.

“Hey, Cas,” Dean greeted his roomie. “Whatcha gonna do until lunch?”

“Hello, Dean. I was thinking about taking a walk actually, by the lake.” Cas was looking at Dean but not meeting his eyes, and Dean could have sworn he was staring at Dean’s lips for a long moment until Dean spoke.

“Cool, mind if I join?”

“Uh, I guess not.”

“Awesome.” Dean fell into an easy step beside the other boy as they made their way down the path from the amphitheater that led towards the lake. He hadn’t gotten a proper chance to check it out on the tour the night before so he was feeling excited. And despite the heat in the air, there was a cool-ish breeze that blew from the water.

In reality, it was more of a pond than an actual lake. The water only spanned about one square mile and the counselor’s had said it was only eight feet deep in the middle. But the water still rippled in the wind and sparkled in the sun, catching Dean’s eyes as he and Cas walked towards the little dock that the path led to. There were a few other docks spread around the whole body, but that one was closest to the camp, and from it Dean could see the shallow river that ran into the water just a few hundred yards north of where they were.

“It’s nice here,” Dean muttered into the easy silence, just listening to the wind in the trees and over the water.

“Yeah,” Cas replied vaguely, his hands in his pockets as he looked over the water.

“I wonder if anyone’s drowned in there…”

“Dean!” Cas cried indignantly, glancing sharply at the elder Winchester who just laughed.

“Kidding!” He laughed a moment longer until Cas relaxed a little and looked back over the water. “It’d probably be nice to just sit and fish here.”

“You like fishing?”

Dean shook his head. “No, not really. Well… I dunno. I’ve never fished before. But I’ve had dreams about it sometimes.”

“You dreamed about fishing?”

“Hey, it’s relaxing.”

Cas took his turn to laugh and the smile he flashed at Dean made his heart skip the tiniest beat. “You’re strange, Dean.”

“That’s right. Not everyone can have naturally perky nipples like me!” Cas laughed even harder at that and Dean nearly doubled over, holding his stomach from laughing so hard. After a few minutes they quieted, both with smiles still on their lips. “Man, I haven’t laughed like that in ages!”

“Really?” Cas turned a more worried look at him, the smile finally fading.

Dean just shrugged and said, “Not the greatest time lately in life.”

Cas scrutinized him carefully. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Shaking his head slightly, Dean laughed again, but this time it was lower and held only traces of mirth. “No. Thanks though, Cas.” They returned their eyes to the water before turning and making their way past it and into the trees to get a closer look at the obstacle courses.

The obstacles weren’t much. There were big wooden poles to jump over and crawl under and a couple of fifteen foot walls that had various handholds carved into the worn wood. Off the one side was a cable maze that zigzagged through the trees and invited the kids to hook into a harness and walk across them ten feet above the ground. The boys knew that a little ways off was a zip-lining platform rising high in the air that would fly you over a huge field and drop you towards the lake. Dean was not excited for that. He may have been okay with heights, but flying was too much for him and even zip-lining didn’t seem like it’d be too different.

After checking out the area, the sun was beating down hard through the greenish canopy, prompting the two to head back and catch the last part of lunch. Cas returned to the cabin swiftly afterwards and Dean decided he’d try to find Sam, who was probably hanging around 3A at the amphitheater. But before he could even head down the path, the trio from 6A caught him first.

“So, Dean, you got a whole cabin to yourself, right?” Luke sneered as they cornered him by 12B.

“I wish! You forget I have a roomie, asshole.” There were no traces of amusement in Dean’s face when he eyed the other boys.

“That little fag? Yeah, what a roomie,” Crowley muttered with a grin.

Dean glared at them. “What do you want?”

“Nothing, really,” Michael said pleasantly, pulling his dogs back in by way of his hands on their shoulders. “Well, maybe some entertainment.” He laughed low in his throat. “We could pay a little visit to your cabin tonight. Maybe play some… games?”

“Fuck off,” Dean replied without hesitation. “I don’t hang around with assholes. Plus, I think it might upset Luke here if you give me special attention. After all, he’s totally in love with you.” It was Dean’s turn to leer at them.

“He’s my brother you fucking—”

Michael was cut off by Dean’s sharp laugh. “Really? Man, those eyes he’s constantly making at you say differently.” Dean glanced at Luke who was looking torn between utter hatred and complete embarrassment. Dean winked maliciously.

“Whatever. I tried to do this the easy way. Come on.” Michael glared at him with something akin to murder until he and his cronies disappeared down the path.

Dean took a couple of deep breaths before continuing on his way, finding Sammy quickly and trying to ease into smiles and laughs around his brother. Evening came quietly and Dean found himself once again at dinner with Cas, both receiving death glares from 6A.

“Did you say anything to 6A? They seem to be murdering us through their eyes…” Cas said uncertainly after a short while, obviously uncomfortable with the situation.

Dean laughed. “Yeah, they were being jerks so I told them off.” Cas glanced at him incredulously. “What? They’re douchebags.” He didn’t think it would be appropriate to mention what they’d said about Cas… but it seemed he would have to.

“Okay, so why are they mad at me?”

“Well, uh, funny story… They might have said you were a fag and tried to insinuate that they wanted in my pants so I told them to kindly ‘fuck off’ and then made incestuous jokes at the obviously in love brothers.” Dean watched Cas warily until the dark-haired boy grinned widely.

“That’s…”

“Awesome? I know. Pretty proud of myself for that.” Dean didn’t have to feign his pride, though he exaggerated it, and he laughed when Cas did.

They ignored 6A for the rest of dinner, teaming up with 3A to head to their cabin, Sam and Brady joining them inside 7A for a few rounds of poker until it was about curfew. When the younger boys left, Dean crawled up onto his bed to listen to music for a while before going to sleep. A little while later, as Cas was heading towards his own bunk, he stopped by Dean’s bed and tapped him on the arm. Dean pulled the earbuds from his ears and turned onto his side to face his roomie.

“Um, thanks for standing up for me today when they called me…” Cas trailed off, looking away.

“Hey, don’t worry about it man. I hate when people say that and those guys were asses. Don’t let ‘em get to you too much.” Dean smiled reassuringly and Cas nodded shyly before turning away to his bed.

“Goodnight, Dean,” he said a little while later after the lights had gone out.

“Night, Cas.” Dean lay staring at the ceiling for a long time, a Little Feat song playing over in his head again and again until sleep took him.


	3. Chapter 3

“You’re going down,” Luke muttered to the right of Dean.

“In your dreams, bitch,” Dean taunted in reply, feeling ready to roll as he crouched on the starting line.

The shrill blow of a whistle filled the air, the sound hollow in Dean’s ears as he took off down the course. Leaping over the first log, he dived under the second, effectively coating himself in dirt. Dean dragged his body through the course, alternating jumping, sliding, crawling, and dragging until he reached the fifteen foot wall and jumped up, pulling himself over and sliding down the other side before darting in and out of the vertical logs. He heard the whistle blow again just as he reached the finish line, eyes moving until he could see Luke standing on the line beside him.

“It’s a tie!” the counselor shouted to them and the others standing around who had been cheering; 2A and 6A for Luke, 3A, 4A, and 11B plus Cas for Dean.

“What? You’re freaking kidding! Dean totally won that!” Sam called out as he ran over to meet his panting brother.

Dean just grinned at him and turned to Luke, holding out a hand in good sportsmanship. Luke just ignored the hand though, glaring before returning to his posse, eyes dark.

“Nice job,” Lisa said to Dean as she neared from her place among 11B. “Sam’s right though, you should’ve won that.”

Raising an eyebrow with a cocky smile, Dean turned to her, eyeing her. “Thanks,” he told her. He wasn’t very interested, but she was definitely playing for something the way her hips swung as she walked back to her friends, giggling and sending him a wink.

Leaving the course, Dean went to where Sam, Brady and Cas were waiting for him. There was a chorus of “go Dean!” and he laughed, wiping dirt from his face. Cas was looking at him with an impressed expression and Dean gave him a mildly offended look, feigning surprise that Cas hadn’t believed in his ability when he’d challenged Luke earlier that morning. Cas grinned and Dean laughed at him until Sam decided to challenge his brother into climbing a tree.

So, nearly ten minutes later Dean found himself sitting on a thick branch at the top of a tall tree, looking over the obstacle course as he took Sam’s hand to pull him up, too. “It looks awesome up here, huh.”

“Yeah, pretty cool,” Sam replied, settling next to Dean. “Hey, Dean,” he began after a moment, looking down at where Cas and Brady where talking with a few girls from 11B, Lisa being one of them. “Do you like Cas?”

Dean shrugged. “Yeah, he’s cool. I mean I’m gonna be rooming with the guy for another month so it’s alright.”

“No, I mean, _like_ like.”

Dean glanced at his brother. “What? Dude, no.”

“Oh… well I was just wondering cause you guys are always laughing together and you’re really relaxed around him…”

“Nah, we just get along.” Dean laughed, trying to hide the nerves that started pulling on his stomach. Was it that obvious? Would Cas start to notice, too? He was quiet for a moment before abruptly turning to Sam. “Anyway, you have the hots for that Jessica girl, don’t you?” he teased, sticking out his tongue when Sam flushed bright red.

“Shut up, jerk!”

“Nope. Not gonna happen, bitch.”

They laughed and stayed like that for another short while until Brady shouted up at them to head down for lunch so that Dean would have enough time to clean up before then. It took just minutes for them to safely land on the ground again and Dean headed back to his cabin, telling everyone else he’d meet up with them in the mess hall.

The grounds were quiet as Dean began the relatively short trek across to the mess hall. He was just passing by 9B when he heard the sudden snap of a tree branch nearby in a thicket of tall trees and shrubs. Warily stopping and turning to look, Dean heard another snap, almost flinching as his eyes searched the area. He couldn’t see anything though, and after a solid five minutes of nothing, Dean continued on his way, cautiously glancing over his shoulder every few steps, spooked but not scared.

Dean soon forgot about the strange noises in the underbrush as he sat across from as and wolfed down three sub sandwiches. He even stole Cas’ leftover chips from his plate as the other boy raised his brows.

“What? I’m hungry,” Dean muttered around a mouthful, making his roomie roll his eyes but smile. Once he finally swallowed and sat back, his eyes grazed over as and he asked, “Are you gonna challenge anyone today?”

“I was actually thinking of asking Sam to race on the obstacle course.” Cas glanced over at 3A and they both waved when Sam noticed them looking.

“You should go ask then!”

“Well, I don’t know…” he trailed off, looking at the table.

“Hey Sammy!” Dean called over, twisting in his seat to get his brother’s attention again. “Wanna race Cas?”

“Sure!” Sam shouted back before returning to Brady.

Dean gave a smug smile to Cas who just laughed somewhat nervously. “There ya go,” Dean told him, popping another chip in his mouth before getting up.

They sat around the amphitheater for a while until their food was settled and Sam was rearing to go. Almost all of 3A plus a few stragglers from other cabins joined them as Sam and Cas took their places at the starting line. Dean had brought over a counselor to act as referee and she counted down slowly before blowing hard on the whistle, signaling the boys’ take off.

Dean watched, mesmerized, as Cas moved his lithe body lightly over and under the logs, sliding above them and ducking below in a quick show of flexibility. Pleasantly surprised by his agility, Dean’s eyes followed Cas all the way down the course as he drew ahead of Sam and leaped onto the wall, pulling himself up and over with careful dexterity. Cas frisked between the vertical logs and he reached the finish a full three seconds ahead of Sam. Dean cheered and ran over to meet them both as they had done for him.

His eyes appraised a panting Cas with interest and he patted him on the shoulder. “Nice moves,” he said quietly, a sly smile on his lips before he turned to Sam and grinned widely, teasing him about losing. When he glanced back at Cas, after Sam went off a little to meet up with Jessica, he found his roomie blushing faintly but smiling.

“Didn’t expect me to win, did you?” Cas asked after a moment, eyes bright.

Dean just laughed. “I didn’t expect you to be able to move like that. But, I’ll admit, my money wasn’t going either way.” Although as soon as he saw the grace that Cas held, he knew his brother would be the loser.

“Always expect the unexpected, Dean. And I can move in other ways, too, you know…” Cas said that last part softly over his shoulder as he walked away from Dean and into the congratulating arms of the bystanders. Dean was left with his mouth slightly open as he watched Cas leave.

“Damn,” he muttered quietly, shaking his head with a laugh and returning to where Sam and Brady were already planning revenge.

After that, the rest of the afternoon was spent by the river, where Dean, Cas, Sam, Brady, and Jessica all went out in their swimsuits to splash around in the hot sun. Dean swam out a ways into the water, engaging in a splash fight with Sam out of range of the other’s that lasted nearly ten minutes. Dean won by shoving Sam’s head underwater and quickly swimming away to sit on the edge of the dock, feet trailing in the cool water.

There were a few other groups of kids scattered around the lake; parts of 11B and 12B, a few 1A with the trio of 6A, and even a larger mix of a bunch of students, none of which Dean was familiar with. But Dean was content with his little group and after a while of sitting in the shallows, Cas and Brady joined him on the edge of the dock while Sam talked to Jess on the sand.

“It’s real nice here,” Brady said after a quiet moment, his eyes on the 11B and 12B group.

Dean laughed when he followed the younger boy’s gaze. “Sure. You’ve got your pretty girls in bikinis, your genuine assholes, your group of… whatever the hell they are, and then us, the ‘weird’ ones.”

“I like being a weird one, though,” Cas piped up, sliding into the water and leaning his back against the side of the dock.

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing,” Dean replied with an easy smile.

Brady grinned and looked at the sun, saying they should probably head back to get cleaned up before dinner. He shouted the message over at Sam and Jess who promptly stood and started back for camp, waiting just long enough for the others to catch up before they all headed up the path.

At dinner that night, the counselors announced that over the next couple of days there would be preliminary races between the cabins on the obstacle course, the cable maze, and climbing the massive tree. They were all warned to be friendly and show sportsmanship even though these were just the beginning races. During the last week of their stay, there would be another set of races that would determine the strongest and best cabin, all of whose members would receive some sort of enticing prize which had yet to be revealed.

It annoyed Dean that he would have to work with those assholes of 6A during the whole thing, but he just hoped that the guys would decide to be nice for once in their miserable lives. They would need to work together in order to win anything, and Dean wasn’t sure they could do that, but he was willing to try. He resolved to talk to them in the morning about it when everyone went out to warm up before the races, and he fell asleep early that night to a Journey song as it played through his tired mind.

 

“What the fuck, Michael? I thought we’re supposed to be working together and winning!” Dean felt his anger swell as he shouted at his teammate who just returned a look of contempt.

“Yes, well, did it ever occur to you that maybe we don’t want to work together?” Michael said pointedly as Luke came up behind them.

“It’s a fucking game. Just try for once in your miserable life.”

“Dean…” Cas’ voice pulled Dean out of his rage and he turned towards his cabin mate. “Maybe they have a point.”

“What?” Dean’s eyes narrowed.

“I just mean that whether we work together or not, the best thing to do right now is to lose as much as possible to that the other teams won’t take us for a threat. When the end games come we can beat everyone by taking them all by surprise.” Cas looked between each of the boys as he spoke and realization dawned on Dean.

“So if we don’t work together now and then team up for real in the end, we can come out on top. Nice!” Dean grinned at the idea before glancing at Michael.

“Deal,” Michael told them with a half-grimace, holding out his hand for Dean to shake. Dean threw a triumphant smile at Cas and they all returned to 6A, relaying the plan to the others and receiving excitement and smug smiles.

The morning was spent with all the teams competing in the three categories. Each team would separate its members for specific courses and the top one from each team would go up against the rest to see who was best. In 6A, Dean, Cas, Luke and another boy were all chosen for the obstacle course while Michael and two others went to the cable maze and Crowley was a tree climber with the remaining two.

It was hard for Dean to purposefully lose as he always tried to win in everything to the best of his ability, but he managed it. Plus he got to watch Cas swiftly move through the course, though he spent a few extra seconds on the top of the wall to glance at Dean before continuing on his way and losing like he’d planned. Dean kept up appearances and fake consoled Cas after the match, laughing inwardly just because he was elated at the plan. It was weird, though, he didn’t really have a reason to be so happy about it, but he was.

That night, Dean, Cas, Sam, Brady and Jess all sat around their own little campfire in a clearing by the amphitheater. They were close enough to hear the faint voices of the other campers past a grove of trees and underbrush, but far enough to feel like they were on their own and could laugh and talk with abandon.

“… So then,” Dean was saying, trying hard not to laugh as he spoke. “Then, our mom, who just had just gotten home from work, she comes into the kitchen and sees Sammy just _covered_ in vanilla pudding! I was in the other room and she just stood there for a minute until Sam lifted his arm and licked off some pudding and said ‘Hi mommy,’ like it was totally normal.”

Brady, who’d been snickering throughout the whole story, busted up in a fit of giggles, rolling around on the log he was sitting on and clutching his sides. Jess was in much the same way next to Sam, who was grinning widely despite the embarrassed and angry look he gave to Dean who just took up laughing himself. He glanced at Cas who was trying to stifle his laughter with a hand while his eyes were squinted and he was holding his stomach.

“Dean you tell that story to everyone!” Sam protested after the laughter continued a full minute.

“Cause it’s fucking hilarious!” Dean replied with a wink as he finally tried to calm the laughter still bubbling in his chest. For once he felt really, truly relaxed and he glanced around, happy that he was where he was.

They all fell silent though when a branch made a loud _snap_ somewhere near them. Dean looked around, his eyes searching where the noise had come from.

“That wasn’t my imagination, right?” Jess asked quietly, eyes wide.

“No,” Cas said just as quietly, tensing visibly.

Dean stood up as he heard some leaves rustle and moved towards the sound. “Hey, if anyone’s trying to play a trick or something you had better get your ass out here right now!” he called icily.

There was nothing and he stayed there another few minutes until shrugging and turning back. He opened his mouth to say something when a shout suddenly sounded and footsteps pounded towards them. Dean spun back and Cas jumped to his feet, being the closest to the noise next to Dean. Two young girls suddenly came into the clearing, running for their lives, not stopping or slowing at the sight of them but running straight up the path to the amphitheater. Dean and Cas exchanged glances and a moment later they heard more footsteps.

“Move, bitches, we’re on a hunt!” Crowley’s voice was unwelcome to Dean’s ears as he and Luke skidded to a halt by them, obviously having been chasing the girls.

“The fuck are you two doing?” Dean asked.

“What does it look like, dumbass? We’re scaring the little kids!” Crowley turned his last words into a degrading title and gave Dean a glare as Luke just laughed beside him.

“Let us pass,” Luke commanded in an attempted menacing tone.

“Why should I?”

“Can we save the chit-chat for later? We’ve got prey to catch,” Crowley said with a smile, taking a step towards Dean.

“They’re probably long gone now anyway, assholes,” Dean returned.

Luke looked at Crowley. “He’s right,” he admitted reluctantly.

“I guess we’ll just have to get some entertainment another way!” Crowley grinned and spun towards the younger kids still by the fire, giving a loud “Boo!”

They were unamused and didn’t even flinch. “Nice try, jerkwad, but you’ll probably find more willing ‘prey’ up at camp,” Jess told him with a hard glare.

Dean praised her in his head but just turned a smug look on the two. Crowley sneered at him and turned on his heel, not even glancing back to see if Luke was following.

“Next time, Dean,” the remaining boy said with a malicious grin before returning from whence he came behind Crowley.

“God, they are assbutts,” Dean sighed, returning to his log with Cas beside him.

“You used my word,” Cas said meekly after a moment of laughter from the others.

Dean shrugged. “It has a nice ring to it.” He grinned at Cas who returned the smile and they resumed a light atmosphere as Sam decided it was his turn to embarrass Dean by telling the story of the missing pie.

Unfortunately for Sam, it was a story that Dean found hilarious and wasn’t afraid to admit that he’d practically bathed in pie the same way Sam had pudding. However, Dean had been twelve with the pie when it happened and Sam had only been four, so there was a bit of a difference. The only bad part about Sam telling the story was that it made Dean crave a good pie and when he vocalized it, the others just teased him about wanting to take a bath in it.

“It tastes freaking amazing though! I mean just…” Dean broke off to mime grabbing a handful of pie and licking it off his hands. He feigned a moan of pleasure and gave a wicked grin to the group. When he glanced at Cas, though, he saw his roomie was staring forcefully into the fire, looking slightly upset.

After a short while, the conversation died down and Sam eventually checked his watch, jumping up when he saw it was a quarter to nine and they all needed to be in their cabins by curfew. They all worked together to quickly smother the fire with dirt and Dean pulled a flashlight from his pocket that he’d brought just in case and led them all back to the cabins just in time. Making sure the younger ones got inside their respective cabins, Dean and Cas finally made their way to their own cabin. They were quiet as they took turns in the bathroom getting ready for bed and when Cas finally came out after going first, Dean stopped him.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, concern present in his voice and eyes.

“Yes. Why do you ask?” Cas replied rather hesitantly.

Dean pursed his lips for a second and shrugged. “I dunno, you seemed a little weird after the whole pie story thing.”

“I’m fine, Dean. But thank you for asking.” Cas blinked and moved past him to his bunk, climbing on top as Dean shut the door to the bathroom, not missing the sigh that escaped Cas’ lips.


	4. Chapter 4

The next couple of days passed quickly, the kids mostly spending mornings in their cabin groups and practicing for the tournaments at the end of their stay, and wasting their afternoons at the lake or in the amphitheater. Groups and cliques became apparent as the first week drew to a close. Michael’s group gained a new guy who went by the name Alistair and followed Crowley around like a puppy half the time. Dean’s group stayed as just the main five, but sometimes Lisa would join them if only to flirt with Dean, though he continually turned her down. He had the good intentions at the start of the stay to bang a couple of hot girls and Lisa was definitely on that list at the time, but once he’d actually gotten there, Dean’s list fell from his head and he forgot all about it and her.

Most groups were by cabin, but there were many with mixes of kids, though in general the girls stayed with girls and boys stayed with boys. The cabins still competed sometimes when practicing or playing games around the camp, but for the most part people stuck to their own cabins to get to know everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. During free time in the afternoons, many of the kids would zip-line or swim in the lake and a lot of them were actually trying to get fit for the competition, which surprised Dean.

The most surprising thing, though, to Dean, was spending time around Cas. His roomie was continually proving himself stronger than Dean had taken his lean form for, but he was becoming somewhat introverted around Dean and started spending more time alone in their cabin while Dean was out and about. As the Monday of their second week began though, Dean decided he would do something about it.

They’d just finished lunch, sitting quietly at their bench in the noisy mess hall, and Cas seemed like he was about to say something and had just opened his mouth when Dean asked quickly, “Wanna go for a walk?”

Cas looked taken aback for a moment, but he nodded. “Sure.” Dean stood and Cas followed him out of the mess hall and towards the southern part of the camp where a large part of the trees were, creating a forest of sorts that was shady and somewhat secluded. They walked slowly through the trees, neither saying much for a while.

“Did you want to talk about something, Dean?” Cas eventually asked.

Dean stopped walking and leaned back against the thick trunk of a tree. “Actually, yeah, I do.” Cas prompted him to continue with the lifting of his brows. Dean took a breath and looked at the ground, rubbing the toe of his shoe into the dirt. “I dunno, you’ve been kinda quiet lately so I was just wondering if you’re okay. I mean I know those guys are jerks, and it’s kinda weird to be away from home, but—”

“Dean,” Cas interrupted, making Dean look up at him and meet his steady blue gaze. “It’s neither of those things…”

“Then what is it?”

Cas turned his eyes away and scuffed his foot on the ground. “It’s nothing,” he said unconvincingly.

“Really?” Dean asked, not believing him for a second.

“Well… I… uh…”

“Spit it out.”

Cas looked at him another moment before staring directly at his shoes and muttering, “I like you.”

Dean was about to ask him to repeat himself when his brain finally processed his words and stopped him short, mouth slightly open. “… What?” he finally uttered in disbelief. There was an eerie silence for a moment before Cas spoke.

“It’s horrible, I know, you’re probably disgusted with me now and—” Cas broke off as Dean leaned forward off the tree, grabbed his arm and pulled him in for a quick, light kiss.

“Man, I’ve been waiting to do that since I first saw you,” Dean said with a smile, partly bashful and partly bold.

Cas stayed where he was, close to Dean, until Dean let go of his arm and he stepped back unconsciously. “Really?”

Dean smirked. “You have no idea. You kept dropping hints and just being a total tease and now you tell me this all cute and shy…” He trailed off, feeling slightly unmanly and cleared his throat, drawing himself up straighter to compensate.

Cas laughed quietly. “Yeah, I guess…” His eyes flicked up and met Dean’s, causing them to just stand there and stare at each other with easy smiles for a minute or two until there was a rustle in the underbrush nearby.

Dean sharply glanced away and towards noise. “Damn it, why does everyone want to ruin the good moments!” He watched as the leaves of a flower bush shook as if something was moving on the other side and he moved closer. He stopped a few feet away as the movements stopped and a slight breeze blew on the back of his head. He suddenly heard a slight growl and furrowed his brow in concentration. “Um, hello?” he called loudly.

The growling stopped and Dean looked back at Cas, who hadn’t moved except to look at the flower bush. Cas shrugged at Dean’s gaze and Dean gave a half-grimace, moving away and back towards Cas.

“Maybe we should head back,” Cas suggested quietly.

Dean replied slowly, “Yeah… probably…” He glanced back once or twice as they went back the way they came, and he could have sworn he saw a pair of red eyes peeking out from between the leaves at him.

They walked back in an easy silence that was permeated only by the constant calling of birds to one another in the trees. When they reached the edge of the path, they saw that almost everyone had left the mess hall and they were all out and about, many heading towards the lake.

“Hey, Dean…” Cas began hesitantly, looking at the ground when Dean glanced at him.

“Yeah?”

“Um… does this mean we’re, uh, dating now or…?”

Dean grinned at his shyness. “If that’s what you want, yeah, I guess we are.”

“Okay.” Cas turned a small smile towards him before turned his head away again, biting his lip. Dean found it absolutely adorable.

“I’m gonna go down to the lake I guess, try and find Sammy. You wanna come?” Dean asked, attempting to put a more normal smile onto his face.

Cas thought for a moment. “Maybe. I was thinking about reading for a while this afternoon…”

Dean shrugged. “Okay, whatever floats your boat. If you change your mind you can always come.” Cas nodded and they returned to their cabin together, Dean changing into swim trunks quickly before taking off for the lake. It felt like things were still pretty normal between them, which made Dean happy. He didn’t want everyone in camp knowing they were dating, not yet at least. He wondered about how he’d break it to Sam as he walked towards the lake, body swaying slightly as he hummed a Metallica tune.

When he went around the corner of trees, he found the lake devoid of campers, pulling him up short. There were no telltale noises or shouts to be heard and no one in sight on the docks or the beach for as far as he could see.

“What the…?” Dean’s face transformed into a look of utter confusion, but it was then that he saw a group of kids walk down from the trees towards the lake on the other side. It was a big group, and he knew instinctively that Sam wouldn’t be with them, so he turned around, ready to head back into camp to search for his brother—

—and he ran straight into a solid body.

“Damn it! I thought that would work, too!” Sam said, pulling a mock bitch face as he stepped away from Dean, who was still recovering from the shock.

“The fuck are you doing?” Dean finally asked, glaring about and meeting eyes with Sam and Brady, the latter being busy laughing.

“Well, we _were_ trying to play a trick on you, but you turned around too quickly!” Dean then noticed that Sam was holding a makeshift fishing rod, but his brain still couldn’t put together a logical explanation and his face must’ve shown it because Sam grinned and tossed the stick into the underbrush before smacking Brady’s arm and getting him to stop laughing. “Doesn’t matter now. Bye!” The younger boys ran around Dean and towards the water, laughing manically as they went.

Suddenly turned off from the idea of swimming, Dean watched them for a moment before shaking his head and turning back towards camp, slowly making his way up the path. The sun beat down through the leaves, and he was almost tempted to go back to the lake and jump in to cool off, but he was already nearing 6A. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the door was open and he cautiously made his way over.

“…fucking disgusting…you are…” Dean heard as he got within earshot. It sounded like Luke’s voice, and he hurriedly, but quietly, stuck his head into the doorway. He saw Cas backed up against the bunks on the far side of the room, Crowley and Luke looming over him and saying various obscenities.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Dean asked, tone icy, as he stepped into the cabin.

“Ah! Dean! Just in time. We’re about to give Castiel here a little present.” Crowley turned to him with a nasty smile.

Dean stepped closer, face pulled into a look of hatred that he fixed Crowley with. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you see, Cas here is in the process of stealing something very important and we’re kindly asking him to fucking stop.” Crowley had his hands behind his back and that easy smirk of his on his lips that Dean didn’t trust for a second.

“Well, you see, I highly doubt Cas would steal anything, and you’re trespassing on our goddamn cabin, so I suggest you take your fucking leave,” Dean told him, somehow managing to sound diplomatic despite the anger raging through his veins.

“Dean, Dean, Dean… You just don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“It’s not _what_ our little angel boy is stealing, it’s _who_.”

“What the hell are you even saying?” Dean switched his glare momentarily to Luke, who had decided to clench and unclench his hands.

Crowley made a quick frown at him and sighed theatrically. “I’ve said too much. Come on, dog, let’s leave the lovebirds alone.” He took a sharp, over exaggerated breath. “Oops!” He grinned and went around Dean on his way out the door. Luke purposefully bumped his shoulder against Dean’s, hard.

After watching them leave and closing the door behind them, Dean finally turned to Cas  to see the other boy sitting on the bottom bunk and staring at the floor with a wide, scared gaze. “Cas?” Dean called quietly, moving towards him. He didn’t answer so Dean just sat beside him. “Cas, what did they say to you?”

The other boy finally looked at him, blinking for a moment before looking at the floor once again. “N-nothing,” he stuttered out. “They didn’t say anything.”

“Bullshit.”

“Dean… it’s fine… What are you doing back anyway?”

Dean gave him a hard look but relented and shrugged. “I changed my mind.”

“Oh…”

“Are you okay? And don’t give me another bullshit answer.”

Cas met his eyes for a few seconds. “Yeah… yeah I’m fine.” Dean stared him down with another stony glare and he reiterated it twice more before Dean left him alone.

They spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on Cas’ bunk while Cas read his book and Dean played games on his Ipod as they both listened to music from it. In the mess hall at dinner, Dean kept throwing dirty looks at Crowley, who would just laugh him off and mutter things to Michael that would make the other guy fix Dean with an unnerving gaze that had Dean fidgeting in his seat.

They once again devoted the night to sitting around a bonfire with the others and headed back just before curfew. Dean kissed Cas once, quickly, when they said their goodnights before they somewhat awkwardly got into their separate beds. Dean slept dreamlessly, but woke in the early hours of morning when Cas made a loud noise in his sleep. He stayed awake after that, occasionally hearing a small whimper as if Cas was in pain, but he decided against waking up the other boy, content with just lying there peacefully and listening to Cas’ breathing.

 

A few days later, Dean found himself on the platform to the zip-line, fifty feet above the ground. His stomach twisted unpleasantly as he glanced down to the trees and grass below.

“Cas, I’m really regretting this.”

Cas laughed. “Just go, you’ll be fine.”

“If I die, you have to tell Sammy you killed me.”

“Don’t be so melodramatic.”

They were the only two up on the platform, Cas having already been up a few times so he was entrusted into hooking Dean up while a few guys waited far below in the distance to catch him where the line ended. He wasn’t sure how Cas had convinced him to do it. Maybe it was the coercing tone of voice or the quick kisses he snuck in when they were alone and he brought it up.

“I doubt this is gonna get me over my fear of flying, you know.”

“Shut up and go before I push you!” Cas laughed again and Dean scooted forward on his bum to the edge of the platform.

“If I live through this—” Dean broke off as Cas shoved him, hard, and sent him suddenly hurtling down the line. He clung to the harness holding him in place with everything he had and shouted a drawn out curse over his shoulder, hearing nothing in return but the rushing of wind. The ride was a lot longer than he’d expected, but after fifteen seconds, he was cheering and whooping loudly, heart pounding in his ears.

It was less than thirty seconds later that Dean was being pulled down a couple of feet to the ground by a couple guys from 6A who had volunteered to catch him. They cheered and slapped him on the back as his windblown hair and exhilarated grin. All of them went back over towards the platform to meet Cas.

“That was fucking _awesome_ ,” Dean told his boyfriend, who normally would have shied from the other guys, but laughed brightly in reply.

“I told you so,” he teased when they all headed back towards the rest of camp to meet up with 6A. When they got back to camp, Cas excused himself to 7A, presumably for a bathroom break, while Dean reluctantly stayed with 6A. Michael was taking his turn on the cable maze and… wow. Dean stared at he moved quickly and precisely across the cables, not even hooked into the little harness that would trail behind as students would walk along.

There was a very apparent grace and flexibility that he showed, nimbly crisscrossing through the trees and Dean found himself shamelessly staring. He only looked away when Michael glanced over his shoulder and met his eyes with a half-smirk. Dean felt his cheeks heat and he turned away, heading off to find Sam, who was in the process of climbing a tree.

He didn’t know what it was about that guy. It was obvious that Michael hated him, but he went out of his way to freak Dean out with unnerving glances and hungry smirks. And they definitely freaked Dean the fuck out. Sure, Michael was attractive, no question, and upon first glance, Dean definitely would have done him as a one night stand or something. But he was invested in Cas, mind and heart, and he liked it—loved it—that way. It was just uncanny, the interest that Michael was showing.

Dean shuddered slightly and shaded his eyes to look up the trunk of the huge climbing tree, gaze searching for his brother among the branches. He tried to push away the thought of Michael and the feeling of eyes watching him as he waved up to Sam. His brother called down a greeting and started moving back down the tree.

Cas suddenly appeared at Dean’s elbow, making him jump slightly, embarrassed that his thoughts still hadn’t been able to jump from Michael. But with Cas there, he focused solely on him and his shoulders relaxed under that blue gaze.

“Hey, Cas,” Dean said quietly, smiling honestly.

“Hello, Dean.” Cas had been watching the descent of Sam, but he sent a smile in return to Dean, who thought he looked absolutely kissable in that moment, but didn’t dare act on that thought.

Sam joined them quickly and greeted Cas with a pat on his arm, looking tired but glad to see them. It was nearly lunch time already so they all started for the mess hall, separating for their respective tables after grabbing food. Dean was surprised to see Crowley at 6A with a couple of his cabin-mates and no Luke or Michael.

After a while, Cas got up to grab something else and Crowley stood almost immediately after he left the 7A table. Dean watched through narrowed eyes as Crowley spoke to Cas, too far out of earshot for him to hear. He was about to go intervene when Cas abruptly turned and went back to their table.

“What was that?” Dean asked, worry making him lean forward on his elbows to look over at Cas.

“Nothing. I’m okay,” he replied, not meeting Dean’s eyes.

“You sure?” He wanted to press Cas, find out what Crowley had said, but he figured since they weren’t in a good position to talk freely, he’d let it be, wait for a moment alone.

It seemed all afternoon that he wouldn’t get that moment because Cas was either directly avoiding him or making sure someone else was always in their company. It really started to get on Dean’s nerves. Eventually, after dinner, they needed to change clothes in their cabin before meeting up with Sam, Brady and Jess by the lake for some night swimming. Dean waited until Cas had changed into swim trunks and emerged from the bathroom, shirtless, to corner him. Literally.

Dean had him pushed up against the wall, holding him lightly by the arms, a wide space still between their bodies. “You’ve been avoiding me,” he said simply in a low tone. Cas looked to the side. “Cas… Talk to me. Please.” Dean waited through another minute of the other boy’s silence before he let go of him and stepped back.

“He said I should leave you alone,” Cas told him quietly once he’d moved away.

“And you listened to him?”

“He said that something is coming for you… I didn’t ask what.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

Cas shook his head with a sigh, holding his arms over his bare stomach. “I don’t know what he meant, Dean. But he sounded serious.”

“Fuck that.” Cas looked at him sharply. “I like you, a lot, and I’m not gonna let some asshole keep you from me. Don’t listen to him, or any of them.” Dean was watching him with a hard gaze, hands clenched. Slowly, Cas nodded.

“Hey, look at me,” Dean requested softly, anger draining as he cupped Cas’ chin lightly and met his eyes. “I’ll protect you.”

Cas stared at him for a long moment until he pulled out of Dean’s grasp to put his arms around Dean’s body and rest his face on Dean’s shoulder, hugging him tightly. Dean’s own arms wrapped around his waist and held him close. He smiled slightly into Cas’ messy hair, breathing in the forest-y scent that surrounded him. _This kid is really something…_ he mused silently, content to stand there for a few minutes longer, just holding Cas.

 

They eventually left to meet up with the others, holding hands most of the way in the heavy darkness of evening as they walked, away from the prying eyes of other campers. They shared a lingering kiss before finally emerging at the beach, finding their group quickly.

“Hey guys!” Sam called out in greeting. They were all already in the water, sitting in the shallows as the moon’s reflection glimmered on the surface. Dean waded in and swam around for a minute, keeping his head above the water.

“I don’t know…” Sam was saying to Jess as Dean finally settled near them. “I’d love to be a teacher, but the money is nowhere near what it would be for lawyers.”

“Yeah. Stanford would take a while and cost more, but it’d be worth it in the end. My parents are pushing for that, though, since a few of my relatives went there.” Jess wriggled her fingers through the water as she spoke and took a moment to push her hair from her face.

“Are you gonna go to college, too, Dean?” Brady asked suddenly from he sat beside Cas.

“Nah. I might take some community college, but Sammy’s the one going to uni.” Dean laughed quietly.

“Dean,” Sam said, frowning. “You know you’re damn smart and you could go if you want to.”

“Yeah, I know, but it’s not my dream. I’ve got no chance of becoming some hotshot lawyer like you do even if I did want that.”

“What are your plans then?” Jess asked quietly.

Dean shrugged. “Don’t have any. Not yet at least. I’ve still got two years before graduation to decide.” His eyes found Cas, who was sitting across from him in the littler circle they’d made, and their gazes met. Dean wasn’t sure what he was trying to convey, or what Cas was reading from his eyes, but the other boy suddenly stood.

“I think I’ll go back and get some sleep. See you all in the morning,” he told them, making his way towards dry land and waving over his shoulder at the chorus of goodbyes. Dean wanted to follow, but he waited another half hour before taking his own leave, deciding to spend a little more time with his brother first.

When he got back to the cabin, Cas was curled up on his bed, turning to face Dean as he entered. “Hey,” Dean called softly, stepping towards him. “You okay?”

Cas nodded. “Yeah.”

Dean pursed his lips like he was going to say something else, but Cas reached his hand out. Taking the hint, Dean took his hand and covered it as it rested on his cheek when he moved close enough. They held a long stare for a while until Dean leaned forward to kiss his mouth in a lopsided fashion. With his free hand, he brushed Cas’ hair away from his forehead and kissed him for another minute before pulling away to get ready for bed.


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of the week passed without incidence. Dean and Cas still hadn’t said anything to anyone about dating, but in the privacy of their own cabin they would talk for hours and share somewhat frequent kisses, each one lasting longer and longer. For once, though, Dean didn’t want to push the relationship too much just yet. He was used to short flings and things only being physical, but there was something about Cas that made him want to take things slow. He let Cas make most of the moves, whether it was sitting side by side when they were around others or holding hands and kissing when they were alone.

It was Friday again before they knew it and a sudden thunderstorm rolled in from the east. It hadn’t been expected, but the counselors made do and invited everyone to stay inside the mess hall for most of the day where the whole camp played group games or split into smaller groups to chat. Dean and Cas mostly stayed with Sam and Brady, but they all spent a few hours throughout the day mingling with some other cabins and playing a few improv games that students in theatre classes taught to the groups. Dean had a lot of fun with those and got up often to play, his goal always to make Cas laugh since the other boy was too shy in front of everyone else to get up most of the time.

It was late evening when the counselors sent everyone back to their cabins with the warning to not go wandering around in the pouring rain. Thunder still clapped every minute or so, loud bursts of sound and flashes that lit up the whole camp as the students made their ways back to their temporary homes. Dean noticed that Cas seemed a little off as they returned to their cabin, but he figured it was just because of the rain and brushed it off.

He didn’t brush it off though when Cas hurriedly got ready for bed and curled up under his blanket without even a goodnight kiss for Dean.

“Cas? Are you okay?” Dean called out timidly, standing by his bunk. A flash of light filled the room, coming in from the edges of the windows. It was followed closely by a blaring bout of thunder and Dean saw Cas shiver. “Cas?”

“I… I’m fine,” came the quiet reply, muffled.

Dean waited another moment until another clap of thunder sounded and he watched Cas’ reaction. “Are you afraid of thunder?” He didn’t sound condescending, but genuinely curious, and when Cas didn’t answer, he took it as a yes.

“What are you doing?” Cas asked, suddenly sitting up halfway to watch as Dean clambered on top of his bunk and pushed Cas towards the wall so he could lie next to him.

What does it look like?” Dean smirked playfully, but Cas flinched when thunder hit their ears and he instinctively pressed himself closer to Dean. Dean gave a triumphant look and slid under the blanket, face close to Cas as he settled in. He kissed Cas lightly and told him to turn over using his hands. Cas obliged and Dean put one arm around his waist, pulling his body close, and the other underneath his head.

“You know thunder can’t hurt you. At least not while I’m here,” Dean whispered into his hair. Cas was still shivering slightly, but he calmed when Dean’s arm tightened around him and he threaded his own hand with Dean’s fingers close to his chest.

“Yeah,” Cas breathed back, tensing as lightening flashed again. But Dean just held him tight and together they rode out the storm, Cas eventually falling asleep in the warm embrace.

 

When Dean woke the next morning, he first noticed that the rain had softened to a drizzle that provided a steady white noise on the roof of the cabin. He also noticed that he had a major hard-on. Normally, he would just get up and will it away and get on with his day, but he was entangled with Cas limbs and his arm was asleep under Cas’ head. During the night, Cas had turned over, and their legs were on top of each other, Cas’ arms resting between their bodies while Dean’s free arm remained draped over his waist. Cas still had his eyes closed and his breathing was deep so Dean thought it best to let him sleep.

Dean looked at his face fondly, tracing the tender young curves of childhood and the sharp angles of manhood that were both present. He smiled faintly at those plump lips that were just so damn kissable. And he knew that under those eyelids were eyes of the most brilliant blue color that seemed to stare straight into his soul whenever their gazes met. He wished, not for the first time, that he could see right back. Cas was still a mystery to him.

Sure, he knew that Cas’ dad was an asshole and his only other family was an older sister Anna, who was obviously a rebel and had already moved out of their house. He knew Cas loved the color green, kittens, books, and paintings. He knew that Cas would rather freeze to death than burn. He knew that Cas was generally introverted in crowds and had come to camp to try and make friends and get out a little more. He knew that the thing Cas wanted most in life was a proper family. He even knew that when Cas brushed his teeth, he would swing his hips back and forth in rhythm, as if dancing to a song in time with each stroke of the brush.

But there were a lot of things he still didn’t know.

What happened to his mother? Why was his dad such an assbutt? Where would he go if he could go anywhere in the world? What was his favorite book? What did he sound like when he orgasmed?

Dean banished that last thought, not helping his already in place boner that didn’t seem like it was going anywhere while he was still next to that beautiful boy. But he didn’t want to move, not just yet. He was content with staying next to Cas and holding him, a smile upon his face because of a happiness he’d never truly known before that moment. After a while, Cas shifted slightly and opened his eyes, surprised to find Dean watching him.

“Uh… hi,” he whispered meekly.

Dean chuckled and the hand resting on Cas’ waist moved to hold his hip. “Hi,” he replied in a low voice. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah… thanks.”

“Good.” Dean still had that smile on his lips and slowly, Cas reciprocated it, a noticeable ease falling over his body. He moved slightly closer to Dean and suddenly widened his eyes with a slight gasp. “Sorry,” Dean laughed. He went to move away, to leave the bed, but Cas put a hand on his shoulder and kept him there, gaze steady on Dean’s.

He planted a kiss on Dean’s lips, a little sloppy, it was morning after all, and pulled his body almost flush to Dean’s. Dean raised an eyebrow in surprise when Cas pulled away a little to look at his face. Cas smiled sheepishly and Dean just brought him in for another kiss, a needy and deep one that threw Cas for a loop. He responded quickly though, almost feverishly, and soon Dean found himself on his back on the small bed, Cas nearly on top of him.

“Cas,” Dean panted after a short while. “As much as I love this, it’s not really helping my—” he broke off as Cas ran a hand down his body and cupped his now achy erection through his pants. His wide eyes met Cas’, who was smiling hesitantly, but boldly kissed him again, cutting off any protest he could have made. Not that he was really going to. It was just a hand for Christ’s sake, but damn did it feel good rubbing him through the fabric.

Dean’s hands were running smoothly over Cas’ back, but he reached a little lower, grabbing for his thigh and pulling him so that Cas was straddling his legs, leaning down to practically fuck Dean’s mouth with his tongue. Dean didn’t even try to fight for dominance, he was enjoying the feel of Cas’ tongue and teeth clashing with his far too much to do anything but hold on tightly to Cas.

He moaned when Cas experimentally rolled his hips forward, using his hands to coax Dean’s shirt off. He lifted his back from the mattress for a moment so the material could be tossed away. Cas left Dean’s lips in favor of his neck, warm hands running over the muscled planes of his chest. Dean let him explore the bared skin with his hands for a while until he pulled Cas up again to meet his mouth, hands grabbing for Cas’ ass and making his hips jerk against Dean’s.

It was embarrassing, really, how short of a time he lasted. But with the noises Cas was slowly starting to vocalize and the friction of their clothed cocks rubbing together, Dean lost it pretty quick. A drawn out moan shuddered from his lips, muffled by Cas’ mouth. They continued kissing for a long while, even past Cas’ own excited groan as he writhed above Dean, not even attempting to hold back. They slowed to a calmer, more passionate kind of kiss, the kind that ended with them just lying there, lips resting against each other’s when they were too tired to actually kiss anymore. Even after that, they stayed together for a long time, just holding the other.

 

It was nearly an hour later that they wound up at the table in the mess hall. They’d finally gotten up and taken turns showering quickly before catching the end of breakfast. Cas’ lips looked a little more plump than usual, Dean noticed, and he had to force himself to not just lean over and kiss him again then and there.

It was Saturday, another ‘free’ day of sorts for the campers. They weren’t forced to practice the courses or really do anything if they didn’t want to, but they were still welcome to. Cas was acting even more shy than before, not meeting Dean’s eyes and staying mostly quiet despite Dean’s easy smiles and laughs.

Dean found it utterly _cute_ and surprised himself that he even thought that. He couldn’t suppress the thought of a much bolder Cas in bed, and _that_ was just insanely hot. It took a fair amount of self-control to shove away the want to fuck Cas’ brains out on the table and then hold him close and never let go. It was a foreign feeling for Dean, wanting everything Cas had to offer from sex to friendship, but it wasn’t unwelcome.

“Dean?” Cas asked hesitantly, making Dean realize he’d been staring at Cas for a good five minutes or so.

“Sorry,” Dean muttered with a low laugh. He instinctively glanced over at 6A, feeling someone’s eyes on him and he frowned when he met Michael’s gaze. The other boy gave a slow smile and didn’t look away until Dean grew uncomfortable and looked back at Cas. “That guy gives me the creeps.”

Cas moved his eyes over and nodded. “Yeah, me too,” he said quietly.

Sam went over to them a while later, inviting the two to 3A for some games with the guys, which they both graciously accepted. Quickly escaping from the prying eyes of 6A, they all made their way towards 3A, where Brady and a couple of other younger guys were horsing around, waiting.

They all sat in the middle of the room to play a few rounds of poker, and then Go Fish when Brady suggested it because he kept losing at poker and had no more rocks to bet with. Dean and Cas sat close together, and after a couple of hours, Cas even dared to rest his elbow on Dean’s knee. Dean didn’t mind, and he blissfully doubted that anyone noticed, but his illusion was shot to hell when Sam suddenly asked to talk to him outside for a moment. Cas met Dean’s eyes but he left without complaint, leaving the guys to joke around and hearing laughter behind the door as it closed behind them.

Sam led Dean a little ways away towards some trees where he stood in a mostly dry area, as the rain was still sprinkling. Dean soaked in the smell of fresh air, cooler than before from the precipitation, but heavy and wet in his lungs.

“What’s up, Sammy?” Dean asked after a moment.

Sam regarded him carefully. “Are you and Cas a thing now or what?”

Dean physically leaned back from the question. “Why would you ask that?”

“Well you two are basically hanging off of each other and it was obvious from the start that you liked him.” Sam gave a non-committal shrug of his shoulders.

“Yeah… we kinda are a thing now…” he said slowly, shuffling his feet in a very un-Dean-like manner.

Sam suddenly shoved at his chest with a half-laugh. “You jerk! Why didn’t you tell me about it? I knew there was something between you… but when did you become gay?”

“Well I didn’t really have the chance to and we figured it might be good to keep it on the down-low while we’re here. And I’m bi you ass.”

Thinking for a moment, Sam nodded. “Yeah, considering how much 6A hates you? Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. They can’t find out.”

“That’s the thing. I think they know.”

“How?”

“Crowley mentioned something about Cas stealing someone and he called us ‘lovebirds’.”

“When was this?”

“A few days ago…”

“So, you think maybe he meant Cas was stealing you? That’s stupid. What the hell does that even mean?” Sam was pursing his lips, thinking hard.

“Fuck if I know! This is more confusing for me than you! I’m the one being talked about here!” Dean ran a hand over his face, sighing. “I’m just gonna leave them alone for now and hope they leave us alone. ‘Cause if they don’t, they’re in for a real fight.”

Sam was quiet. “So, you really like him then? Half of me wants to call you a whore since you’ve known the guy two weeks, but half of me thinks it’s great that you found someone you actually care about.”

“Bitch!” Dean laughed, slightly embarrassed.

“Jerk.” Sam grinned back at him. They laughed for a moment, having eased into their regular brotherly teasing. “Come on, let’s get back.” Dean walked beside his brother as they returned to cabin 3A, but he glanced over his shoulder when he heard something behind him. He stopped and stared at the tree line, hazy in the drizzle.

“What is it?” Sam asked after a few seconds.

Dean just waited, watching for a minute before he continued walking. “It’s nothing.” Even inside the cabin with the other boys, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him. And that feeling had been nagging at him since he first arrived at camp.


	6. Chapter 6

It wasn't until after dinner that Dean and Cas returned to their cabin. They were joking around, laughing, but Dean was developing a bad feeling, and he narrowed his eyes when they arrived at 7A and found the door unlocked. They always locked the door.

Dean glanced at Cas, who suddenly looked worried. "Do you think—?"

"Just open it," Cas cut over his question. Dean complied and he pulled open the door. Inside, it didn't look like anything was out of place. Dean cautiously stepped in and looked all around. "Dean." He turned when Cas said his name and the other boy went to Dean's bunk, picking up a folded paper, eyes examining it closely. "It's got your name on it."

He handed it to Dean, who gingerly took it and observed his own name in neat letters. He opened it and found the same handwriting inside. "Meet me at the lake. Ten o'clock," Dean read aloud. Mouth parted slightly in surprise, he met Cas' eyes.

"Who do you think it's from?" Cas asked, moving closer to look at the handwriting.

Dean shrugged. "Looks like a girl's writing. Maybe someone wants to make a love confession."

"You probably shouldn't go then."

"Jealous?" Dean grinned but his smile promptly dropped at Cas' hard gaze. "It might be something different. I'll go just to see who it is. I won't stay. Anyway there's still a few hours until then."

Cas looked contemplative, but eventually seceded and moved away with a sigh, pulling off his shirt and starting the process for bedtime, though it wasn't even eight o'clock yet. Dean followed, tossing the paper aside onto an empty bunk.

"You know, even if it is some girl, I wouldn't just leave you," he said quietly, leaning against the side post of Cas' bunk.

Cas stopped rifling through his duffel, but didn't look at Dean. He sighed and his shoulders dropped slightly. "I know," he replied softly. He was still and Dean waited for him to move or say something, but he didn't.

"Cas…" Dean began hesitantly, standing straight. "There's something I want to say." He waited for Cas' reaction, but none came. "This morning… Well, what I mean to say is… I don't—I'm not expecting anything like that again. It was great, more than great, but I don't want to push you into anything."

"It's okay, Dean," Cas finally said, turning his face towards him with a slight blush.

"I'm used to… you know, physical relationships, but I don't want this—whatever  _this_  is—to be like that."

"So… what you're saying is that I shouldn't kiss you?" Cas turned his whole body towards Dean, though his expression was unreadable.

Dean backtracked. "No, I didn't say that, I definitely want to do that."

"Good." The way Cas was looking at him made Dean become unnerved. He felt like Cas was staring him down. "But I shouldn't do this?" Cas hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Dean's jeans and pulled him close so their hips were flush, but Dean was still leaning back enough to look at Cas' eyes.

"Cas," Dean whispered his name warningly. The other boy smirked slightly, and it dawned on Dean that maybe, for once, he wasn't the dominant one in the bedroom, no matter how shy Cas was everywhere else.

Cas put his lips near Dean's ear. "What if  _I_  want it to be…physical?" His breath was hot on Dean's neck as he planted a kiss there, making Dean almost shiver.

"Oh God," Dean muttered, wondering just what the hell he'd gotten himself into. Just then, however, they were rudely interrupted by the door opening and Dean sprang back from Cas.

"Hey, Dean, I was—" Sam broke off when he saw Cas shirtless and Dean looking flustered standing close to each other. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"It's, uh, it's fine. What's up Sammy?" Dean asked almost immediately, moving away from Cas towards his brother.

"Oh, well I was just wondering if you've seen Jess anywhere. She's not in her cabin and I can't find her so I thought maybe you'd seen her or something?"

"No, sorry squirt. Haven't seen her since lunch."

"Oh…" Sam looked crestfallen and Dean patted his shoulder.

"She's gotta be around somewhere. Come on, I'll help you look." He shot a glance over his shoulder at Cas, who frowned at him, but he spun Sam around and went back outside.

They walked towards the amphitheater and were passing the two empty B cabins when Sam spoke up. "So, what was that? Why were you so eager to get away?"

Dean nearly tripped over his own feet. He was really out of it… "Nothing," he replied slowly. "It's… weird."

"What is?"

"Nothing. Let's drop this, 'kay?"

"Whatever. I just hope you aren't screwing things over already with him."

"I hope not." They arrived at the amphitheater at that moment and Dean looked around, searching for a familiar head of curly blonde hair. He suddenly spotted her heading towards another group of girls, looking like she'd just taken another route to get there than they guys. "There," Dean said, pointing her out, only able to see her fleetingly as she passed by various bonfires and lanterns.

"Thanks!" Sam bounded off to greet her and Dean could see his smile from across the way in the dimness.

Turning around, Dean sighed and headed for his cabin. Excited, yet not, to see Cas again after walking out like that. He slowly made his way back, hands in the pockets of his jeans and the warm night air caressing his skin with a light breeze. It was a full moon, Dean observed, looking up at the sky and the stars. He suddenly changed his route and went down to the lake.

Dean went to the end of one of the docks, one foot hanging off the edge slightly as he lay down, arms folded behind his head to stare up at the stars. He watched the dark sky silently, hoping Cas wouldn't be too mad when he would go back later that evening. Almost tempted to get up and go back right then, Dean clenched his jaw and reminded himself he had a meeting soon.

What the hell was he doing though? A meeting? He had a boyfriend, and who in hell would want to meet him in secret past curfew? He should be in his cabin, making out with said boyfriend or watching him as he read a book and smiling over at him. Instead, he was avoiding him in favor of watching the stars…

"Damn…" Dean sighed out, closing his eyes. It wasn't that he was scared to face Cas again, he just wanted some time to think about things… He was always the dominant one, in any relationship. He was on top, he was the big spoon, he was the macho man. But it was painfully obvious that Cas wanted to be in control, at least as far as sex went. He  _had_  put the moves on Dean in the first place, anyway, and Dean had still believed since then that he was in charge.

Cas was shy and quiet around others, but with Dean he was… different. Different was good though. Dean wasn't used to it, but damn it had been sexy when Cas had whispered into his ear. Remembering it sparked arousal in Dean, all the more reason to get up and go to him, but he refrained, forcing himself to stay in place and focus on the constellations rather than Cas. He was being selfish, and he knew it, but he figured he had already made up his mind to wait and it was getting too late to take that back. It was already past curfew.

"You're early." The voice made Dean bolt upright and twist around to see a figure leaning against one of the posts on the side of the dock.

"You left that note?" Dean was shocked. He was beyond shocked.

Michael smirked. "Who were you expecting?"

"Anyone but you."

"You wound me, Dean," Michael said with mock hurt, hand clutching at his chest. He moved away from the pole and close to Dean, who got to his feet.

"What do you want?" Dean was suddenly not in the mood to play any games. Especially not with Michael.

The other boy shrugged. "To talk."

"About?"

"Anything?"

Dean gave him a once over, taking in the tight shirt showing off his lean body and the swim trunks covering his thighs. The light breeze blew at his brown hair, only a little longer than Dean's. "Why?" he finally asked.

"I've taken an… interest in you, Dean."

"Really now?"

Michael sighed dramatically. "I know it seems as if I hate you, and to be honest I do." He paused to laugh at Dean's unamused face. "But, there's something about you…"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Dean took a step back as Michael moved closer. He was at the edge of the dock though, and glanced down at his feet for a moment. "Look, I'm really not in the mood to talk to you right now. I'm pissed enough as it is."

Michael continued as if he hadn't heard Dean, and took a fistful of Dean's shirt in his hand. "Something about you that turns me on," he said silkily.

"Woah, okay, hold up. What the hell dude. You're always giving me death glares and sending your dogs to pick on me and now you're saying you're in love with me? The fuck are you playing at?"

Michael glanced away slowly with an irritated expression. "I don't send them, they do what they please. And I didn't mean to imply that I'm 'in love' with you, because I mean nothing of the sort."

"You just want to fuck me, right?"

"Yes," he replied simply with another smirk. His face was dangerously close to Dean's and involuntarily Dean leaned backwards, and found himself nearly going off the edge, the only thing keeping him on the edge of the dock was Michael's grasp on his shirt.

Dean grabbed his wrist to make sure he had a grip on the other boy in case he let go. "Well, sorry, but I have to decline. Unlike you, I'm not into hate fucking. Plus I'm in a relationship." He didn't mean to say it, but it slipped out anyway. Michael's face didn't falter.

"I know. That little piece of ass you've got all alone in your cabin? I've known since the beginning."

"How?"

"Let's just say I've got eyes on you, Dean." A chill ran all the way down Dean's spine and his eyes widened. Michael just grinned maliciously. "I know something you don't, and let me tell you, you won't like it when you find out."

"What are you ranting on about for fuck's sake?"

Michael suddenly moved back, pulling him up slightly so that Dean was steady on his own feet, but kept his hand buried in Dean's shirt. A dark glint shone in his green-ish eyes, reflecting the moon in their depths. "It's not safe to walk alone at night, not unless you're with me."

"I'll take my chances," Dean replied darkly, mouth setting in a hard line.

"Suit yourself." With that, Michael let him go, giving his body a slow look over before he walked away, leaving Dean alone on the dock once again.

It took Dean nearly half an hour to get up from where he'd fallen to his knees after Michael's disappearance. He slowly stood, moving through a daze back towards camp. He didn't even try to hide when he saw the occasional counselor walking around with a lantern, but luckily they were all far enough that no one saw him or tried to stop him. Before he knew it, he was standing in front of his cabin, and he stood there for a good five minutes until he heard the snap of a twig nearby and was startled enough to dart inside. He found Cas sitting curled up on his bed reading. He looked up when Dean entered.

"You were gone a while…" he said quietly, setting his book aside and putting his feet over the side of his bed. Dean didn't answer. He couldn't answer. So he moved to the bathroom, leaving the door open and just standing at the sink, hands bracing himself against the counter and bowing his head.

"Dean?" he heard Cas call as the other boy got to the floor and stood at the doorway to the bathroom. "What happened?"

"Michael…" he whispered, voice hoarse. Dean cleared his throat and tried again. "It was Michael."

"What did he want?"

Dean shook his head.

"You didn't… do anything, did you?"

He shook his head again and finally turned to Cas. "No. It was just…" He took a steadying breath. "I'm alright."

Cas watched him silently for a while until Dean looked away from his piercing gaze. The other boy suddenly took his hand and led him from the bathroom. "Come on," he whispered, hitting the light switch, Dean still in tow. His hands pulled off Dean's shirt and Dean was grateful. It smelled a little like Michael.

It took them a quiet minute to both climb up into Dean's bed, but they were soon settled, Dean's arm tight around Cas' waist as he buried his nose into his boyfriend's hair. He was shaking slightly, but the warm body beside him eventually got him to calm down and he fell into darkness.

* * *

He was dreaming. There were red eyes everywhere. Eyes that glinted in the darkness that suffocated Dean. Eyes that slowly faded away, only to be replaced by glowing hazel eyes that were mostly green and looked exactly like a pair he'd spent more time staring at than he'd care to ever admit. The darkness, though, was all consuming and Dean found himself running, running through invisible branches that scratched his face and caught at his clothes. He ran and he ran until suddenly—

He woke up. Eyes wide open.

Half-lidded blue eyes met his and Cas yawned into his face. "Morning," Cas muttered sleepily.

"Morning…" Dean was still shaken slightly from the dream, and from the memories of the previous night that flooded his mind.

Cas watched him for a moment, quietly as he attempted to wake up. It seemed like he gave up though because he ducked his head under Dean's chin and snuggled against his chest suddenly. It made Dean smile. He thought back to what Cas had said before though.

"It's hard to think of you as the 'man in the relationship' type when you seem to like being the little spoon so much," Dean mused quietly, feeling like the words would be way too awkward if said to anyone else on the planet.

"Who says I am the 'man'?" Cas mumbled. "I like equality. We both give, we both receive, and no one has to be the 'man'."

Dean mulled that over for a moment. "Yeah, I can get that."

"If that's the case, you know you owe me, right?" He felt Cas chuckle in his arms.

"We've got to get to breakfast. It's getting late," Dean said deflectively. Cas groaned in complaint and that made Dean laugh slightly. "You're acting like me in the mornings."

"I'm allowed."

Dean extricated himself from Cas and left the bed, smiling when Cas just buried his face in Dean's pillow, hugging that instead of Dean himself. He let Cas be and went to take a shower.  
"It's visiting day, you know. Get up soon." He left for the bathroom after that, sighing almost inaudibly.


	7. Chapter 7

"They said they'd come right?"

"They'll be here soon." Dean and Sam were sitting together in the low branches of a tree, waiting for their parents to show. They had visiting days the second and fourth weekends and Dean knew Sam had been looking forward to the first one since arriving, though he'd never admit it. Dean had no idea where Cas was; when he'd left the cabin his roomie had still been sleeping on his bed and hadn't shown up while Dean was eating breakfast. He wondered if anyone would come to visit Cas, after all his own father was at camp with them.

"There!" Sam suddenly called just as Dean heard the familiar rumble of their father's Impala. Both climbed quickly to the ground and Sam ran to Mary, catching her in a tight hug while Dean followed more slowly.

"Hi, Mom. Hey, Dad," he said when he was near enough. John clapped him on the shoulder and Mary hugged him.

"How are you boys?" John asked after a moment, being led into the camp. The counselors had told everyone that they could bring their visiting family members to the amphitheater where there would be enough room for them.

They stayed there for a while, Dean letting his brother relay what they'd been doing during their time so far. Upon the mentioning of Cas, Mary asked if they could meet him and Dean nodded slowly, still unsure as to where he was. Sam volunteered to help him look, but he declined, saying that someone had to entertain the 'rents.

Dean first checked their cabin, finding it empty, and then went around to where parents were still coming in and kids were waiting. He suddenly felt someone tug him by the waistband of his jeans, pulling him behind a particularly large tree. A soft, smiling mouth met his and he immediately relaxed, pulling away after just a few seconds to look over Cas.

"Hey," he said quietly, noting that Cas looked pretty well rested and his hair was still damp.

"Did your parents come?" Cas asked, moving away slightly so they could return to the crowd of oblivious kids.

"Yeah. Sam's got 'em at the theater. I was actually looking for you to meet them."

Cas smiled widely. "I'd love to. I'm waiting for my sister right now, though."

"Will she be here soon?" Dean glanced around through he had no idea who he was looking for.

"Actually I see her pulling up now… oh, no." The last part came out as a groan and Dean followed his gaze to where a redhead was getting out of a car, followed by a skinny guy and a short boy.

"Who's that?"

"Anna's boyfriend, Zar, and his little brother, Gabe."

"You don't like them?"

Cas shrugged offhandedly. "They're alright. Zar had a tendency to be rude to everyone and Gabe has quite the affinity for sweets." As he spoke, the trio saw them and walked over.

"Your sister's a hottie," Dean muttered with a grin, earning himself a punch in the arm from Cas.

"Hey, Cas!" Anna greeted him with a quick hug while Gabe, who looked about Sam's age, bounced around them. "Who's this?" She gave Dean a once over and he winked. Car nearly hit him again, but Dean put his arm around the other boy's shoulders.

"His boyfriend, Dean. Nice to meet you." He flashed his most charming smile.

Anna gaped and looked at her brother. "You didn't tell me!"

"It just sort of… happened," Cas replied sheepishly. Anna didn't seem convinced, but Dean saw his brother out of the corner of his eyes and waved slightly.

"There's my brother, I gotta go. You guys wanna come hang out?" Dean let go of Castiel, starting to move away.

"Zar?" Anna asked.

Her boyfriend shrugged. "Why not?" He had a British accent that Dean wasn't expecting, but after he spoke he started to have that Brit look about him.

Dean led them all to the theater and found Sam and his parents easily. Introductions went smoothly and they all found themselves mingling together. Mary was talking to Anna close by Dean and Cas and they overheard Anna say something about them. Both turned to listen.

"… I knew Cas would be staying in a cabin with just one other guy—he told me before I left after dropping him off—but I didn't expect that they would—"

She was cut off as Cas put his hand over her mouth. There was quiet for a moment as both women looked shocked and Dean and Cas shared a meaningful glance.

"…that we would end up as friends, right? I know you said something about Cas having a hard time making friends," Dean said, hesitantly at first and then finishing strongly by meeting Anna's eyes.

Cas let her go. "Yeah," she said quietly. "That's what I was going to say." Mary looked extremely confused, her gaze flicking between her son and Anna. "So anyway, Mrs. Winchester, is Dean a good kid?"

After that little bout, Dean tuned out from the conversation and held a silent conference with Cas. His eyes widened and he nodded his head slightly.

_Nice save_.

The corner of Cas' mouth twisted up along with one eyebrow slightly.

_Yeah._

Tilting his head slightly, Dean scrunched his eyes a little bit.

_We'll have to be careful._

Cas pursed his lips lightly.

_You shouldn't have told her in the first place._

Dean felt his mouth curl into a smile that he valiantly attempted to hide.

_Sorry. Not my fault we're dating._

Raising both his brows, Cas also tried to hide a smile.

_Oh, really?_

Dean shrugged gently and smirked.

_You're the one who asked if we were after you confessed your undying love to me._

Cas bit the inside of his lip.

_Don't remind me._

Dean grinned and resisted the urge to laugh aloud. Sam, who was sitting sort of near him, leaned over and punched his knee.

"If you're done eye-fucking…" he whispered so only Dean could hear. Dean gave a mock expression of reproach. Sam smiled knowingly. He turned back to Gabe, who was looking at him with something akin to adoration and resumed whatever conversation they had been having.

Suddenly John stood from where he'd been talking to Zar about classic cars and went to Dean. "I wish we could stay longer, boys," he began, grabbing the attention of Sam, "but your mom and I have to go. We're heading up to Bobby's."

Dean was slightly taken aback. "Bobby's? Why?"

"Karen's come down with something and she's in the hospital, so we're taking a few days to help out," Mary said, joining them. "I wish we could stay longer, though."

"No, no, it's fine. Go help them. And tell Karen we hope she gets better soon," Dean said, sharing a look with Sam.

They took their parents back to the parking lot, leaving Cas and his party momentarily as they received goodbye hugs and kisses. Sam waved as they drove away and then turned to Dean in the glaring sun.

"I hope Karen will be alright," he said quietly.

"Yeah, me too." They returned to the others, slightly down in spirits. After a while, Sam left to hang out with Brady and Jess once their parents left, too. Dean invited Anna, Zar, and Gabe all to join him and Cas for lunch, which they gratefully accepted.

They were all sitting at the 7A table when Anna suddenly said, "So I take it you don't want your parents to know?"

Dean didn't need her to clarify what she was talking about. "Not yet, I guess."

Anna nodded in an understanding way. "How did you know I wouldn't freak when you told me?"

"I assumed you knew about Cas already, and you seem like the open-minded type." Dean shrugged.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Anna laughed. "So how did you two…?"

Cas glanced at Dean with a smile. "It just happened," he said, gaze never leaving Dean's.

Zar snickered. "You two are sickening." Anna playfully hit his arm which made Dean laugh inwardly.

"You saying you never look at your girlfriend like that? Man, Anna, why do you keep this guy around?" Dean asked jokingly.

Anna shrugged and gave Zar a long look, which he met and smiled. "He just doesn't like other people to know he really cares," she said fondly.

They all spend the next hour or so laughing and joking around. Dean was glad to see Cas relaxed around the others and he himself liked them and found his smiles to be easy and genuine. They eventually had to leave, though, and the two gave them a proper sendoff before returning to their cabin to change before heading to the lake.

Dean waited until Cas lifted his shirt over his head to grab him around the waist and plant a kiss on his lips. Cas made an "mm" sound against his mouth and smiled happily. Arms around each other, they slowly rocked back and forth on their feet.

"Your sister is pretty cool," Dean muttered softly.

"Your parents are very… laid-back," Cas returned.

"Yeah… It's kinda nice."

"Mmm…"

"Hey Cas…"

"Yeah?"

"Where's your mom?"

Cas didn't even falter in the steady rhythm that they had established. "She died when I was young."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I don't remember her much. Anna misses her more than I ever did."

"Still though…" Dean trailed off, unsure what to say.

"Anna's taken care of me mostly, growing up. My dad really wasn't around a lot, but…" he paused to shrug. "It's not the best situation, but I have learned to cope with what I have and not take things for granted."

Dean was silent until he pulled back a little to take Cas' face between his palms. "I don't know what it is about you… but I want to take care of you," he told Cas seriously. Their eyes watched each other's for a long moment.

Then, Cas smiled. "I'd like that."

"Come on, let's go," Dean said, giving him a quick kiss before grabbing his swim trunks off his bunk and disappearing into the bathroom to change.

* * *

It was late that night, as he slept with arms around Cas in his bed, that Dean found himself trapped inside a nightmare. He was sitting in a chair, tied by the wrists and ankles, and… naked. Desperately wanting something to cover himself up with, Dean looked around but found only darkness surrounding the circle of light he was currently in the middle of.

A single pair of eyes began bobbing towards him, stopping just outside of the light. A tanned body was slowly revealed as it moved toward him and Dean was surprised to see Michael's face on top of it, a wide smile below his glowing eyes that flashed from green to red.

"Dean, Dean, Dean… How can you be so dense? Don't you see, there's only one outcome here…" Michael was saying slowly as he stepped closer and sat on Dean's legs, tracing a finger down his chest. Dean shivered involuntarily, eliciting a smirk from Michael.

"Stop," he whispered weakly, finding his voice much hoarser than anticipated. "Damn it, stop."

Michael made a  _tsk_ ing sound and said with false regret, "I don't want to have to do this. But we both know this is the only way."

"No… No!" Dean tried to twist away but he was held down by ropes as Michael loomed closer. He gave a violent thrash and suddenly he was on the floor.

"Dean? Dean, are you okay?" Cas' voice was welcome to his ears as Dean groaned and sat up, nursing his elbow.

"Shit…" he muttered, realizing that his nightmare had made him fall out of bed.

"Did I push you off?"

"No," he replied quickly. "Bad dream…"

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I bruised my elbow but I think I'm fine." Dean stood and stretched a little, feeling groggy. He climbed back up onto the bed and sighed as he relaxed his head against the pillow, feeling Cas' hands experimentally probe his arm for damage. "I'm good," he reiterated.

"What were you dreaming about?" Cas asked, meeting his eyes. He looked half asleep, but curious, and Dean knew he couldn't tell him the truth.

"Doesn't matter. Go back to sleep, 'kay?"

Cas glared at him a moment but relented and closed his eyes. "Tell me in the morning, then."

Dean didn't answer, just stared at Cas for a while until his own eyes slid closed and he drifted into a dreamless, blissful sleep.

* * *

"Dean, you fell out of bed because of it," Cas said accusingly, crossing his arms.

"Yeah well that could have just been you pushing me after all."

"It's not likely."

Dean sighed in irritation. Cas moved closer to where he was, standing near the door. Dean had been about to leave for breakfast when Cas brought up his nightmare again. Guiltily, Dean tried to quash his anger. Cas didn't deserve it.

"If you won't tell me, I'll just have to assume it was something truly terrible."

"Yeah?"

Cas uncrossed his arms and put a hand on Dean's chest. "Don't you trust me?"

Dean hesitated. "Cas, don't pull that shit on me. I said I'm not telling and that's that. It's just too weird anyway and I need time to… think it over."

"It was a dream! What is there to think over?" You should feel comfortable telling me anything." Cas dropped his hand, hurt showing in his eyes.

Half of Dean wanted to comfort him and the other half wanted to run and not look back. He knew he ought to have told Cas, but he couldn't bring himself to. Muttering an apology, he walked out the door.

He went towards the lake, knowing everyone else would be at breakfast and he could have a little alone time by the water. With a heavy sigh, he sat on the edge of his customary dock and stared out over the sparkling water.

There was no doubt in his about his feelings for Cas. He knew he was falling hard, and he liked it like that. What was confusing was the whole situation with Michael. They hated each other, that much was clear, and yet he kept haunting Dean all the time. It was weird. It was unnatural. And it had to stop. Dean stood finally after thinking about it for a long time, and turned around, determined to find Michael.

"Speak of the devil," he muttered as Michael himself walked across the beach towards him. "I was just going to look for you," he called out loud enough for the other boy to hear.

Michael grinned. "Why ever would you do that?" He stopped just before him, but Dean didn't dare flinch or move back.

"This creepy game of yours needs to stop, Michael. I'm not interested in you, at all, and I'm getting sick of your little cronies, too. This is fucked up and you need to stop because nothing will ever happen between us except maybe my fist hitting your face." Dean had tried to keep his cool while talking, but he could feel his composure slipping away under that strange gaze.

Michael suddenly shrugged. "Okay."

"Okay?"

"If you really feel that way."

"I do."

"Okay." They stood staring at each other for a long while until Dean went to walk away. But Michael caught his arm. Dean stopped, turning his head to look at him. There was a smirk on Michael's lips as he suddenly pulled Dean towards him and kissed him.

Dean was shocked still and it was only when his wide eyes processed a figure behind Michael that he tore himself away from the other boy's grip. Cas was staring at them, mouth open, before he abruptly turned and ran back up the path.

"Cas! Wait!" Dean shouted, already moving. "Damn you!" he cursed at Michael before taking off after his boyfriend. "Cas!"

Dean ran to the dark-haired boy, who seemed to be trying to escape blindly. It didn't take long to catch up because after a moment Cas tripped over a tree root and fell onto his hands and knees.

"Don't touch me," he cried when Dean kneeled next to him. Cas was cradling his hands and, despite his outburst, he didn't protest when Dean took them and examined the scraped up skin of his palms that was slowly starting to bleed.

Gently, Dean brushed the dirt off of his hands and held them in his own on his legs. "I didn't ask him to meet me," he said after a deep breath, already knowing all the accusations on the edge of Cas' tongue. "I told him he needs to stop stalking me and to call off his pets from us. And that nothing would ever happen because I have you. I don't know why he kissed me. He probably saw you and wanted you to hate me… but please don't hate me now." Dean was looking at his hands as they covered Cas', afraid to look up. He didn't even care that he knew he looked weak and vulnerable. He didn't care because he couldn't lose Cas. They'd only been together such a short time, but Dean could feel himself breaking at just the thought of losing him.

"I don't… hate you," Cas whispered slowly. Dean still didn't look at him. He was silent again for a short while, and Dean's legs were starting to hurt because he was sitting on them.

"…It was Michael in my dream last night. That's why I was so freaked out. He's been following me everywhere I was just telling him to stop…"

"I'm sorry." At that, he looked at Cas, finding the other boy's face streaked with silent tears. "It was selfish of me to run like that."

Dean's eyes widened. "No, it's not your fault. Don't be sorry. I'm the one who's sorry here."

Cas just stared at him. "Okay," he finally whispered.

"Okay?"

He nodded. Dean shifted a little, drawing Cas' attention to his uncomfortable position. He looked around and half-crawled over to a log sitting nearby, taking his hands back from Dean and motioning for him to follow. Dean sat, straddling the log to stretch his legs and Cas sat facing him, legs almost touching his. His hands rested lightly in the space between them, obviously hurting.

"So… are we good?" Dean asked hesitantly.

Cas watched him for a moment. "Yeah," he muttered, using the back of his hand to wipe weakly at his face. Dean smile slightly and leaned forward, hand wrapped in the hem of his shirt to brush off Cas' cheeks, leaving them ruddy but with a tiny smile decorating his face.

Dean looked at him with a serious expression again, letting his hand fall to Cas' leg. "Cas…"

But Cas just shut him up with a light, quick kiss. "I know. Me too." He smiled a small smile and leaned his forehead against Dean's, who breathed out a sigh of relief.

Neither had to say it, but both knew the unspoken words that passed between then.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a warning for this chapter, which includes 2,192 words of pure, unadulterated, underage sex. If you don't want to read this, I suggest you skip everything after the line break later on in this chapter. However, if you skip that, please read the very very last few paragraphs, because they are detrimental to what's happening next.

It wasn't long until the two headed back to camp so that Cas could clean up his roughed up hands. Dean led him into the bathroom of their cabin, knowing that there was a little first aid kit under the counter, and told him to wash his hands. Dean watched as he gingerly rinsed the dirt and dried blood from his palms and felt himself laugh quietly.

Cas glared as Dean told him, "Sit," and motioned at the counter. There was a sudden knock on the door, a rhythm of six taps that could only mean it was one person. "Come in," Dean shouted, poking his head out of the bathroom, but trusting that his brother would hear. Sure enough, the door opened a moment later.

"Hey, Dean," Sam called out in greeting.

"In here." The younger Winchester followed his voice and stood in the doorway as Dean ripped open a little package that contained an alcohol wipe. Cas made a face as he quickly rubbed at the skin, cleaning it but irritating it enough to bleed a little more. Dean pulled out a little gauze square and placed it on one palm. "Hold your hands together, tightly, until the bleeding stops," he said quietly.

"Okay," Cas replied. Dean's hands covered his, holding them together in between his. He slowly raised their hands and pressed a kiss to the tips of Cas' fingers before turning away to where his brother was watching, arms crossed as he leaned in the doorway.

"What?"

Sam smirked. "Nothing. What happened?" Dean brushed past him and into the main room as Cas shimmied down from the counter.

"I fell," Cas replied simply, going to sit on the bottom bed of his bunk.

Sam made a noise of understanding as Dean asked, "So what's up?"

"You guys missed breakfast so I came to make sure you weren't murdered or something." He paused and Dean shared a brief glance with Cas. "Or, you know, having rough sex or anything like that." He grinned at Dean's indignant expression.

"Well we're fine. We went out earlier and Cas tripped so we came back."

"I figured." Sam glanced around lightly. "Oh! Get this. Brady thinks the camp is haunted."

Dean gave him a look. "Haunted?"

His brother shrugged. "Last night he went off on his own to back to the cabin, and he told me that on his way he saw like a giant black dog or something that was walking through the trees."

Dean froze. "Did it have glowing eyes?"

"How did you know?"

"Oh, shit. Oh,  _shit_."

"Dean?" Cas called his name in a worried tone.

Looking between them, Dean tried to rein in his thoughts. No. It couldn't be. It was too crazy! There was no such thing as ghosts or spirit dogs or creepy shit. Especially not because… what about what Michael said? " _It's not safe to walk alone at night, unless you're with me… Let's just say I've got eyes on you…"_ Did he have something to do with this thing Brady saw? The same thing that was following Dean?

"Did Brady say anything else about it?" he asked quickly.

Sam was looking at him with quizzical eyes. "Uh, no. Just that it freaked him out and he took a different way back to the cabin to avoid it. Dean, what's going on? Have you seen it or something?"

Dean took a deep breath. "Okay, so, there's a few things I should tell you guys."

"This has to do with Michael, doesn't it." Castiel's tone suggested that it wasn't a question.

"Michael? That asshole from 6A? What's he got to do with it?" Sam asked, utterly confused.

Dean felt exasperated. "Just… just sit down, okay? I'll try to explain this." Dean himself took a seat on the bottom bed of his own bunk and Sam sat on the one next to Cas'. After a minute, he launched into explanation; he told them about seeing the eyes everywhere and always feeling them; he told them about what Michael had said; that led him to his suspicions that maybe Michael was somehow connected to this dog thing, whatever the hell it was. When he finished, he just sat, watching the other two boys for their reactions.

"So… maybe the dog thing is Michael?" Sam suggested softly.

Dean shook his head. "I don't know… I don't know how he could be."

"This is why you've been scared to tell me this, right?" Cas was looking at him with an unreadable expression, something he seemed to have mastered over his years.

"Yeah… it just seems so fucked up."

"Should we talk to Michael about it?"

"No!" Dean and Cas answered simultaneously. Sam held up his hands in defeat.

"We can't tell anyone. Not until we can figure some things out…" Dean trailed off, thinking.

"What are you planning?" Cas asked cautiously. Dean pursed his lips but shook his head.

"I don't know. I guess we should just let this be for now until we can make a plan or something."

"You're just going to let him keep harassing you?" Sam gave his brother a pointed stare.

"You did tell him to stop, but I doubt anything got through. It's all that can be done for now, it seems." Cas was looking at his hands, slowly peeling them apart to see if they'd stopped bleeding. It seemed they hadn't though because he promptly stuck them back together. "Let's just see what happens over the next couple of days." The two brothers nodded in reply and they all agreed to head over to the amphitheater and see what was up.

* * *

The day passed slowly. Cas sat out of many activities because of his hands and Dean earned himself a few dirty looks from Luke, Crowley and even Alistair sometimes. They flat out avoided Michael at all costs. Eventually, evening rolled around and the atmosphere at their customary campfire was noticeably darker.

"I know it was scary guys, but  _I'm_  the one who saw the puppy, not all of you," Brady said after a very long bout of silence.

Dean didn't even have the decency to glare at him. "Whatever," he mumbled under his breath. "I'm gonna go sleep or something," he said, louder.

"Me too." Cas stood with him and they fell into step together, Dean was subdued while Cas seemed to get a little nervous. Dean figured he was afraid of seeing the dog thing somewhere, but they made it to their cabin without any hindrance of the sort.

Dean entered, leaving Cas to lock the door behind them and moved towards his bunk. He stopped, standing stock still, eyes focused on nothing and shoulders tense. His eyelids slid shut and he sighed lightly as he felt Cas come up behind him and put his arms around his waist, resting his chin on Dean's shoulder.

"Are your hands okay?" Dean asked softly, leaning back into Cas.

"Yeah, they feel fine."

"Good." They were quiet for a long moment and Cas showed just how good his hands were by starting to rub them over Dean's chest.

"I'm still mad at you for kissing Michael you know…" Cas' tone was partly playful, partly hurt, and Dean turned halfway towards him, still within his embrace.

"Cas, I didn't—"

He was cut off by a kiss. "Shut up." Cas turned him and put a hand on the back of his neck to give him a crushing kiss. Dean found himself with his back against the wall next to the bathroom door and being held there by a surprisingly strong body.

Tongues and teeth clashed as they clung to each other tightly. There was desperation in the kiss, a need to claim. The sort of primal, territorial kind of action that showed just how much Cas hated that Michael had any sort of effect on Dean.

"Bed. Now," Cas commanded as he pulled the shirt off of Dean's back and led him towards his bunk. There was a weird, quiet moment as they both climbed up, but as soon as Dean was lying down, Cas attacked him with a hard, lingering kiss.

Dean felt a slight sense of loss as Cas' darting tongue left his mouth a moment later. But a sudden shock ran through his body and straight to his groin as Cas' teeth latched onto his shoulder and bit down, hard, but not painful. His hands were running over Dean's sides, body low over him as he sat on Dean's hips, and Dean knew that he could feel the hardness growing in his pants. An embarrassing moan escaped his lips as Cas' hand slid down the front of his jeans and swiftly undid the button and zipper. His deft movements rid Dean of his pants quickly.

"And here I thought you were young and innocent," Dean said quietly, helping Cas out of his own clothes.

Cas laughed deep in his chest. "My birthday is in six days," he growled, lips against his neck. "And just because I'm a little younger doesn't mean I'm any less experienced."

"I don't think you could have said anything sexier just now," Dean muttered through a grin.

Sitting back a little, Cas gave a contemplative look. "You can't even imagine how much I want to fuck you…" he whispered sensually.

Dean looked at him, speechless. "You're just full of surprises," he finally uttered, grabbing at Cas to pull him in for a rough kiss. Cas rocked his hips playfully into Dean's, smiling against his mouth.

Despite his beginning insistence, Cas took his time, moving slowly and gently down Dean's body to bring one of his nipples into his warm mouth. He licked his tongue over it and bit down gently, making Dean's body jerk, before running his tongue over it again soothingly. He transgressed down to Dean's bellybutton, poking his tongue into it intimately and making Dean shiver pleasurably.

Dean made a noise, half in protest, as Cas started pulling off his boxers. "Cas…" he muttered in warning, looking at him.

"Quiet. Just trust me," Cas replied in a whisper, meeting Dean's eyes with honesty. He slid the fabric to his knees and Dean's head fell back against the mattress as Cas' hand wrapped around his hard sex. His free hand curled around Dean's thigh and he started stroking it, gently at first and then a little faster. At each pull he would twist his wrist just enough to turn Dean into a writhing, breathy mess. Cas wasn't even halfway done with him, though.

Dean gasped in a startled breath when Cas licked his head. "God, Cas," he moaned as his boyfriend's lips caressed him. He heard Cas chuckled quietly before taking him into his mouth as far as he could. He slowly used his tongue and his lips to send shocks through Dean, and  _shit_  did it feel  _good_. Cas bobbed his head and really put that damned tongue to use while Dean's hand caught his hair, unconsciously forcing that hot mouth lower and trying not to jerk up his hips like he wanted.

When he started tiptoeing on the edge of orgasm, he pulled at Cas to make him stop and traced his fingers along his cheek and to his chin, getting him to move back up and meet his mouth. That god _damned_  tongue just knew exactly what to do to send more pleasure coursing through him. "Wait," he whispered quickly when Cas started reaching down again between their bodies.

Cas met his eyes and let himself be pushed over so that his back was against the mattress. When Dean was sitting between his legs after he got rid of both their boxers, their eye contact never broken, he suddenly showed trepidation. Dean knew what he was thinking before he could say anything and leaned up to kiss him deeply. "Don't worry. I won't do that, not here."

Those blue eyes were looking at him with such trust that Dean took a moment to put a hand on the side of his face and kiss him again with as much passion as he could muster. His hands slid down Cas' body, feeling a shiver run through him and smiling as he moved to kiss his neck. Cas' head tilted back into the mattress and he made a breathy noise as Dean's tongue found his Adam's apple.

It was time for some payback.

He kissed a path down to Cas' chest, hands taking in every inch of smooth, pale skin. He'd seen Cas shirtless plenty of times during their stay already, but to be  _touching_  that perfection was something he didn't think he'd ever get used to. And to be  _kissing_  it,  _tasting_  it, and loving every single moment of it.

Sure, Dean had lost his virginity at fourteen and had been with more girls, and guys, than he'd ever care to admit, especially to Cas, but he'd never experienced something like this. Loving a body to this extent, wanting to make him feel everything he could, wanting to make it just so  _good_  for Cas. After all, Cas did the same for him, and he just  _had_  to see this wonderful boy moaning beneath him and letting go.

He heard a sharp gasp of breath as his hand caressed Cas' thigh and inwards, knuckles brushing his balls before his fingers wrapped around his hard flesh. Looking at Cas' strained face and closed eyes, he leaned into his ear and whispered, "Don't hold back," and was immediately rewarded with a loud moan. He smirked and moved back down his body, loving the sight of Cas splayed out before him and started stroking him gently, planting a wet kiss on his hip and then just sitting back to watch Cas come undone.

Cas' leg muscles were twitching and he put them around Dean, inviting him in. As much as Dean was tempted, he'd never hurt Cas and had already fought through the haze of sex that he wouldn't go that far. If he did eventually fuck Cas, he wanted to do it properly. So he made do with the drawn out moans he was hearing from Cas from the movement of his hand and the twist of his wrist.

"Dean," Cas suddenly gasped, lifting his head to look at him. "More," he commanded. Dean wasn't one to disobey an order like that so he increased the pressure of his hand, moving faster and changing position so that he could kiss Cas while still jerking him off. Cas received him heartily, tongue meeting his while his moans were muffled by Dean's mouth as he leaned down with one hand holding him up next to Cas' head.

Cas' hands found his hips and scratched long lines along his lower back before moving to his achingly hard cock. He matched Dean's rhythm and squeezed when he squeezed, twisted when he twisted, and they both tumbled towards the edge. Their mouths were still tangled together in a mess of tongues and teeth and they fell apart only when Cas shuddered into a magnificent orgasm, uttering a long noise of pure pleasure followed by Dean's name.

Dean followed just moments later, his mouth on Cas' neck where he breathed out a string of curses that somehow worked in Cas' name. When it was all over, Dean put his newly freed hand by Cas' head to help hold him up as he looked into Cas' eyes. His blue eyes were filled with so much love that it almost surprised Dean, but he smiled against that kiss-roughened mouth and kissed him again.

"You're perfect," Dean whispered, meeting his eyes again. Cas slowly smiled and his hands absently skittering across Dean's hips. Shifting, Dean leaned onto his elbows and kissed Cas again before sliding down slightly to rest his head on his chest.

Cas was playing with his hair when he asked quietly, "Should we clean up or…?"

"Probably," Dean sighed, content to be lying there but starting to feel sticky and a little cold. He got to his knees and crawled over Cas to get down. He started walking towards the bathroom before he realized Cas hadn't moved except to turn his head and look at Dean's still naked body. "You coming?" he asked, grinning when Cas smiled and heaved himself from the bed.

Dean went to start the shower and Cas leaned in the doorway, not at all self-conscious. Something Dean was glad for because he took the moment to really take in the full extent of his body and he smiled at the thought that all of that was  _his_.

"What are you smiling about?" Cas asked, arms crossing though his own smile adorned his lips.

"Come here," was all Dean said and he took Cas' hand to draw him near and kiss him deeply once more. He reached out to test the water and stepped beneath the spray, pulling Cas to join him. The warm water ran in rivulets down both of their bodies, and Dean tried to not get too turned on because he thought Cas might be tired out. But, as he'd said earlier, Cas was just full of surprises.

Taking Dean's face between his hands, Cas placed a bruising kiss on his lips, crowding into his personal space, which he'd already been doing considering how small the shower was. It really had been a bad idea on Dean's part for many reasons, but he couldn't care at all in that moment and just made a growling noise, putting his arms around Cas.

"You're so damn sexy," he muttered against Cas, who just hummed in reply. "And you're quiet, too." He pulled back a little when Cas did to grin.

"Would you rather I chant your name obscenely?" Dean was just about to ask what he meant when Cas tilted back his head and said in a mocking, melodramatic voice, "Dean… Dean! Oh, Dean…"

Dean just laughed and suddenly turned to push him against the wall of the shower. "Just you wait. Someday I'm going to make you scream my name." His tone was menacingly sexy and Cas smiled back at him.

"Is that a threat, or a promise?"

"Both," Dean growled, crushing their mouth together once more. His thumbs traced the V shape of Cas' hips, pushing his thigh between the other boy's legs and feeling his cock hardening.

"Really, Dean?" Cas laughed as Dean left his mouth in favor of his neck, lapping up the water droplets falling from his hair now that his head was out of the water. He bit Cas' earlobe in response.

"I'm allowed," Dean whispered, using the words Cas had used before, but in a much different context. They were there, it was then, and Dean wanted to give him something back. So without another word, Dean slid down to his knees and didn't even hesitate to bring Cas into his mouth, absolutely loving the startled noise that escaped Cas' throat and turned into a soft moan.

Cas put his hands on Dean's shoulders, and Dean felt him trying to jerk forward into his mouth, except that Dean's own hands were holding down his hips. He was trying to take his time and get Cas as hard as he could for the second time that night. It seemed to be working, too. He figured Cas was still not at one hundred percent after his last orgasm and it didn't take long to bring him close to another one.

"Dean… Dean, stop. Stop." As much as Dean didn't want to, he acquiesced and pulled away from Cas, licking along his abdomen on his way to Cas' mouth. Cas was shuddering slightly and opened his eyes to look at Dean a moment before pulling him into a long kiss, arms around his neck. "You don't have to… you don't have to go that far," Cas told him breathlessly.

Even though Dean normally would have said he wanted to and would have gone ahead anyway, there was something in Cas' eyes that made him stop. He instead crossed the space that had grown slightly between them and gave him a deep, long kiss, reaching out with his hand to slowly, gently trace a path back down his body. He used his hand in place of his mouth to bring Cas, shaking, to the edge again and over, watching his face as he groaned with a loving smile and letting himself go soon after.

They stood under the water, foreheads resting together for a few minutes until Dean suggested they actually wash up and get ready for bed. Cas didn't complain and ten minutes later found them both with wet heads but dry clothes and curled up in bed together. Dean was absently stroking Cas' hair, not minding the dampness, and he felt, for once, truly content to be there with Cas' arm across his waist and the younger boy's head underneath his chin.

"Cas…" he began softly.

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?" He'd been just a little worried since that moment where Cas told him to stop. He was afraid Cas was hiding something, but he had no idea what it could have been.

Cas pulled his head back to look him in the eyes in the dimness of the room. "Yeah," he whispered. "I'm okay." He kissed Dean softly just once and settled back in, holding onto him tightly and sighing. Dean resumed the movement of his hand and soon felt Cas relax beside him, falling asleep.

Outside, a dog suddenly howled.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poorly edited... I'm sick, forgive me?

Dean felt his whole body tense as the noise carried on for another few seconds, making chills shudder down his spine. Cas didn’t wake, though, and Dean held a mental battle as to whether he should investigate or just stay in bed. The next sound of a low howl found Dean already on the floor, silently pulling on a pair of loose pants and his shoes. He tiptoes to the door, glancing back when Cas stirred on his bed. He settled back after a moment and Dean breathed in relief, slipping out the door as quietly as possible.

The moon was bright and soft lamps outside each cabin lit the area up. Torch in his pocket, just in case, Dean walked around to the back of the cabin, the side where he’d heard the dog. There was nothing, no one in sight. It was probably past ten o’clock and everyone was sleeping. So why the hell had a damned dog howled? Could it be the ghost dog? The temptation to find out overruled the fear that Dean felt.

He ventured into the trees, following the side of the path that led to the zip-line. He moved quietly and with purpose, looking around as he went, ears open for any sound. The smallest, deep growl was heard on the other side of the path and Dean looked over, startled to find glowing eyes trotting across from him. He didn’t stutter in his step though, and continued on, watching.

When the dog suddenly met his eyes, Dean found them emotionless and dull. It veered off the path and stopped, looking over its shoulder at Dean. He took the hint and started following the dog, trying his best to keep any fear from showing. The path the dog led him on kept them in sight of camp, easing Dean’s tension just a little. They walked for fifteen minutes, down to the lake and around, hugging the shadows when Dean began to hear voices. The dog vanished in a cloud of dust into the ground, leaving Dean to search out the voices on his own.

“…and then… screamed!” He heard muffled laughter that sounded familiar and crept closer, glad of the few trees that were scattered around. Firelight came into view, yellow arms pushing back the shadows and Dean kept well out of the light. He saw a small fire with three figures around it, ones that he knew well enough to place by silhouette.

“Was that supposed to amuse me? Because it didn’t.” He heard a sigh. “Mutts like you aren’t very interesting to me.”

“Give him a break, Michael. He may not be as good as us, but he’s useful.”

“Useful?” Crowley’s voice was suddenly loud. “I’m more than damn useful you cowardly piece of—”

“Enough!” It was said as more of a growl that was unmistakably Michael. He made an animalistic snarling sound that made Dean’s eyes widen as he finally moved to where he could see them properly. “You two are pathetic.”

Luke’s face twisted but Crowley just stayed where he sat, indifferent. They were all gathered around a small campfire, resting on tree stumps that looked almost as if they’d been cut for the purpose of their asses to sit. Dean couldn’t fathom why they would be out so far and so late, but he didn’t have much time to ponder it just then.

A light breeze tickled the back of his neck and all three boys sharply looked in his direction. Dean swiftly left the scene, praying that they wouldn’t chase him. He caught the very last few of their words, though.

“Someone’s been snooping,” Michael called out.

Crowley laughed. “Just wait, Dean. Just wait!”

He heard the yelps of laughter chasing him as he returned to camp, safely making it into the cabin and leaning against the door inside, trying to catch his breath.

“Dean?” Cas called out sleepily, shifting. “What’re you doing?”

He took a steadying breath. “I just went to the bathroom,” he muttered, silently slipping off his shoes, blessing the darkness for hiding the motion. Dean quickly went back to the bed, settling beside Cas, who curled into his side, seeming to not notice the pounding of Dean’s heart. He was soon asleep again, and Dean matched his breathing, trying to calm himself enough to sleep too. It took a long time, but eventually exhaustion won him over and Dean drifted into a light sleep.

* * *

 

“What do you think it means?” Cas asked quietly. It was the next morning and Dean had just finished relaying the events of the previous night to him after some persuasion from Cas. Dean should have known Cas would think something was up, especially after feeling the cool, empty side of the small bed before Dean had returned.

“I don’t know… this is all just really fucking weird.” Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “The ghost dog and… I just don’t know fucking anything.”

“You swear a lot when you’re exasperated,” Cas pointed out, probably hoping for some sort of comic relief.

“Yeah, thanks for noticing,” Dean replied dryly.

Cas moved to sit next to him and bumped their shoulders together. “Don’t worry, Dean. We’ll figure it out.”

Dean looked at his hands. “I have a really bad feeling about all of this, though. It doesn’t seem normal. Fuck,” he sighed in a half-laugh, “none of this is normal.”

Putting a hand on his knee, Cas leaned closer. “Come on. Put on your brave face and let’s go get breakfast.”

Dean’s stomach rumbled in reply and they stood together. Cas seemed much more relaxed than a few days previously after their morning escapade. It was nice, though, and they went to the mess hall in amiable silence. Sam was already there with his friends and Dean left Cas at their table for a moment to tap his brother on the shoulder and motion for him to follow as he retrieved food. After telling him a quick run-down of the night—minus a few parts for obvious reasons—Dean returned to the 7A table and let Sam have a while to think it over.

“What did Sam say?” Cas asked when he sat.

“Nothing much. The gears in his head are turning though.” He wasn’t really hungry, but Dean managed to eat what food he could get into his stomach to get it to shut up before they all headed outside.

Teaming with 3A, Dean and Cas went towards the amphitheater. Gwen had announced during breakfast that a special visitor was coming with a surprise and they were all to gather there to wait. The air was filled with the chatter of teens, though Dean, Cas and Sam were all uncharacteristically quiet. It was only when Jess joined them and Brady struck up a conversation about procedural cop shows that they all started talking more. Dean was starting to get loud when Gwen and a couple of other counselors, including Christian and Zach, called for everyone’s attention.

“Everyone, please welcome Daniel Elkins, who has brought with him a few of his prized horses from the Elkins’ farm down the road a ways. He has been kind enough to introduce them and possibly let a few special campers ride them around a bit. We’ll go by cabin number to come up.” Gwen called out for 1A and 8B to go up first and hear a little speech by this Elkins character and pet the horses. It took quite a long time until 6A and 7A were the only ones still to come up.

Cas was immediately entranced by the beasts, being the type to naturally like animals, but Dean was a bit more skeptical considering how big they were. They two with a couple of younger guys in 6A were the first to get close enough to the horses as they all vaguely listened to Elkins. One of the horses, a large, male, chestnut colored beauty with a long tan mane took a liking to Dean and nuzzled against his face, much to his dismay and Cas’ amusement.

Eventually, Dean just smiled and took the carrot that Elkins offered him to feed to the horse. Suddenly the chestnut’s gentle brown eyes grew wide and he tossed his head, backing away from Dean. Elkins came over and soothed him with a few pats to the neck.

“What happened?” Dean asked cautiously, doubting that he himself was the cause of the horse’s panic.

Elkins shrugged. “Something spooked him.”

It was then that Dean heard smothered laughter behind him. Michael and Luke were nearly doubled over with laughter a short ways away from the horses. “What’s with you two?” Dean shouted at them.

Neither answered but Michael straightened and, with a menacing grin, walked towards where Cas was currently entertaining a speckled mare with carrot. The mare’s ears twitched towards Michael before she also tossed her head and backed away, followed by Cas in an attempted to calm her while Michael began laughing again.

Dean narrowed his eyes and went to stand near Cas. “What’s your problem, Michael?”

“ _My_ problem? I don’t have a problem,” Michael told him, sobering. “You’re the one who hasn’t figured it out yet.”

Gwen interrupted the conversation by addressing them all to return to the group. She then spent a moment talking quietly with Elkins before returning to the congregation. “Well, since _someone_ has decided to upset the horses, there will be no riding them today. Later this week, though, Mr. Elkins has said he’d like to return and give you all another chance.” There was a chorus or groans at first and then some excited whispers. It seemed the campers had really liked the visit, and even Dean had started to like that one chestnut that’d been keen on him.

“Okay, so that was sufficiently freaky for me, how about you guys?” Dean asked once he was surrounded by his friends as they walked towards the lake.

“Dean… I know this sounds crazy… but what if they’re some kind of animal or something?” Sam whispered quietly to his brother.

“What?! What do you mean? That _is_ crazy, Sam.”

He shrugged. “I just mean… well you heard them last night and you said they were all growling and stuff, and now, freaking out the horses just by being near? As much as you don’t like animals, they have really good instincts, and there’s definitely something wrong with those guys.”

The more Dean thought about it, the less crazy it sounded and the more it made sense. “But what about the ghost dog thing?”

“I don’t know. I wish I had a computer and could research this stuff, but we have to go off of ourselves for now.” Sam ran a hand through his hair and glanced at Jess, who was talking with Brady nearby them. “I don’t think the ghost is bad, though. If it led you to where they were…”

“What if it wanted them to catch me or something?” Dean hated how skeptical he felt, but he couldn’t help it in such a situation.

“I don’t know, Dean!” The younger Winchester sighed. “It didn’t hurt you, I know that. Brady saw it and it didn’t hurt him. Maybe it’s a warning.”

“A warning?”

“Yeah, like it shows up to try and keep you from getting into trouble.”

“I think most people would be more scared of it than whatever trouble was around if they saw it.”

“I’m just throwing out ideas here, okay? It could have bad intentions, but for now I think whatever it is and whatever it wants, we’ve got no reason to distrust it just yet.”

“I think Sam is right, Dean.” Cas suddenly spoke from where he’d been walking beside the two. “We should try and figure out what it wants, though, and soon before things get worse.”

“Get worse?” Cas nodded and Dean just sighed. “Great,” he muttered irritably.


	10. Chapter 10

The rest of the day passed slowly, Dean’s group staying inside and playing games or just talking and generally trying to avoid Michael’s posse. It wasn’t until that night, when Dean and Cas were leaving cabin 3A to get some shuteye just before curfew that Dean decided on a course of action. At least a temporary one.

“I’m gonna hide out and see if they leave again tonight. See what they’re up to,” Dean said to Cas when they were standing outside of their cabin.

Cas gave him a dubious expression. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. They could…hurt you,” he said in a small voice.

Dean smiled a little. “I’ll be fine. I don’t think they’ll do much, plus I won’t give them the chance to catch me.”

“I’ll stay with you, then.”

“No, Cas, it’s not…”

“Safe?”

Dean grinned at the hole he’d dug himself into. “Fine, but you have to do what I say or else we might get caught.”

Smiling, Cas’ eyes glinted. “Deal.”

They hid in a dimly lit grove of trees with a direct view of cabin 6A. Dean was determined to wait at least an hour or two and hope that Michael and the others would leave and head out to where they were the night before, or at least go somewhere that they could spy on them.

Dean was just getting comfortable leaning on a tree a bit from the path when he heard footsteps crunching on the dirt and glanced around to see Gwen heading their way. He held his breath and counted on the shadows to hide the, meeting Cas’ eyes and motioning for him to be silent, but he would have no such luck. Gwen stopped near where they were and tilted her head to listen.

He thought quickly, what could they do if they were caught? Excuses… they wouldn’t work on Gwen, he just knew. He had an idea suddenly. Barely making a sound, Dean moved to Cas and pressed his back into the tree he was party hidden behind. Cas’ eyes widened in surprise until Dean covered his mouth with his own in a slow, passionate kiss. Dean prayed that Gwen wouldn’t see them, but if she did, he figured she’d probably leave them alone.

As it turned out, she did see them, and Dean looked out the corner of his line of sight to see her brows rise. Making a show of ignoring her, Dean slid a hand under Cas’ shirt in plain view and continued kissing him. It barely took any energy to get absorbed in Cas, though, and his tongue moved across his mouth until Cas easily gave in and returned the assault of his kiss with fervor.

Dean opened his eyes slightly and in his peripheral vision caught Gwen shaking her head and moving past. Even after she was gone, he continued the kissing his boyfriend for a solid couple of minutes before pulling away with a grin. He was a little out of breath, and so was Cas, who was also sporting a nice pink flush.

“Nice job,” Cas muttered, eliciting a flash of Dean’s ego in the form of another wide grin.

“Only thing I could think of,” Dean said with a slight shrug.

“Obviously.” Cas had a mischievous smile of his own that Dean would have kissed again if he hadn’t heard the quiet sound of a door opening nearby. He pulled Cas a little more behind the tree and stood behind him, hands on his hips so they could both lean out from behind the trunk and see what was happening.

Three figures were quietly leaving 6A and slipping around to the backside where they disappeared from sight. Dean glanced at Cas and they shared a look before both moving from cover and looking to make sure there was no one else around. They went around the back of the cabin, peeking out from around the corner and dismayed to find the trio was nowhere in sight and hadn’t left any trails. Stepping from cover, Dean turned towards Cas.

“Damn… They must have run or something,” he mused aloud.

Cas was looking at the ground, wandering towards a group of trees. “Dean, come here,” he called out. Dean immediately looked over and went to him.

“You find anything?”

“I’m… not sure.” Cas crouched to look at something on the ground, though it was difficult to see in the darkness surrounding them. Dean kneeled beside him and tried to see what Cas was seeing.

“Are those…?”

“Dogs made these, Dean,” Cas said matter-of-factly, his eyes regarding the imprints of padded feet in the dirt.

“There are no dogs around here, except that one… and there’s at least two sets here.” Dean stood, feeling disconcerted beyond belief. “How the hell are these even here?”

Cas sighed lightly and looked at him directly in the eyes. “I think there is more happening here than we thought.”

“Shit…” Dean ran a hand over his face. “Alright, we’ll talk to Sammy tomorrow and check this out again in the light. Meanwhile, we should get back because someone’s coming.” His eyes were trained back to the path where he saw a light moving from far off and a figure walking with it. “Damn, it’s your dad. We really better go.”

Cas gave a pained sigh and followed him back into cover, weaving between trees off the beaten path to get to 7A, which was only about a hundred yards away and around a corner, but still felt like forever considering how slowly they had to move to avoid Zach. But they made it to 7A without a hitch and slid inside, Dean breathing out in relief until he realized that the lights were on and someone was standing with their arms crossed in the middle of the room.

“Gwen?!” Dean exclaimed, more than a little surprised to see her there.

“Hi, boys,” she said cheerfully, brushing a bit of her dark hair behind her ear.

“Ms. Campbell,” Cas greeted her cordially, looking considerably less surprised than Dean.

She gave him a little smile of approval, having known him for quite some time because of her work related relation to Zach. “Before you ask why I’m here, I’m sure you already know. Don’t think I don’t know what you two have been up to.”

At that, Dean and Cas shared a look. “I really don’t think you know,” Dean dared to say.

“You’re trying to figure out the black dog that keeps showing up.”

Dean gaped at her. “You know about that?”

“Of course,” Gwen replied easily, “this is my camp after all.”

“What is it?” Cas asked quietly.

“A black dog.”

Rolling his eyes, Dean gave her a look. “Obviously.”

With an expression bordering on contempt, Gwen replied, “Not your average black dog, but an ethereal version of one. They’re usually native to the UK and are generally regarded as death omens. It’s said that whoever sees one will die, or one of their family will.”

“That’s bull!”

“Obviously,” Gwen shot back. It really seemed like she didn’t like Dean and he had no idea why. “You’ve seen him, and so have I, and so have countless others over the years, though nobody has died from it. So yeah, it’s bull. But because you two and your little group seemed intent on figuring out the big mystery, I figured it was time to step in. No one is supposed to know about this, and it usually just gets passed around as a ghost story, ignored mostly and definitely not looked into by a ragtag Scooby-Doo team.”

“Hey, we’re not like Scooby-Doo!” Gwen just laughed. Dean looked at Cas, who was staring at the floor in contemplation.

“That solves one mystery,” he said quietly. “But there’s still something else.”

“What do you mean?” Gwen asked, her interest peaked.

Cas met Dean’s eyes and they both made a silent decision. “It’s nothing,” Cas told her. “Just thinking out loud. I guess now that we know about the dog…”

“Why is it hanging around here anyway?” Dean asked, crossing his arms.

Gwen shrugged. “No idea. It’s been here a lot longer than I have, I know that. It’s strange, more so than the usual strange of one of those, but I have no clue as to what it’s doing here. So far, nothing has ever happened to anyone, so I’m letting it be.”

Cas had moved away from them slightly, calculating something in his head, but he was still paying attention enough to ask, “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Shrugging again, Gwen just said, “Hasn’t been an issue so far.” She let out a deep breath. “Anyway, I suppose I’ll let you two catch some shuteye. It is past curfew after all.” She moved towards the door and had it open before she turned back to look at Dean. “And don’t think next time I’ll walk away just ‘cause you’re making out with your boyfriend, either.”

As the door closed, Dean started to laugh. He rubbed his forehead with his hand and glanced at Cas. “Well, that was interesting.”

Cas sat on the bottom of his bunk. “Yes, but it still leaves the question of Michael and the others.”

Sighing, Dean moved towards the bathroom. “Let’s just stick to the plan and tell Sam in the morning. We can figure this out when the sun comes up. In the meantime, I say we get some well-deserved sleep.” He went to relieve himself quickly as Cas just sat on the edge of the bed, looking troubled.

* * *

 

“I just don’t get it!” Sam nearly shouted in frustration. They were all sitting around the campfire the next evening, the three boys having finally filled in Brady and Jess about the happenings around camp, though leaving out some unnecessary parts regarding Michael and Dean. Both had taken it quite well, surprisingly, and Dean found he was glad for the extra brainpower on the team.

Dean sighed into his hand. “I know,” he said in a tired voice. They had been brainstorming all day the different possibilities that could explain the trio of baddies. Still, they were no closer to an answer than the night before. Nothing anyone could think of seemed plausible… “Maybe because it’s not!” Dean mused quietly.

“What’s not?” Cas asked beside him.

Dean abruptly stood to pace slightly. “Okay, so we’ve been thinking about things that could be possible to actually exist to explain this shit. But maybe this is something _im_ possible. Maybe we can’t figure it out because we’re trying too hard to make it fit with normal logic, when all of this is anything but normal.”

“So, you’re saying we need to take into account all sides and not just what we think of as natural, right?” Jess asked, sorting through what Dean had just said.

“Yeah. I mean a damned ghost dog is seriously unnatural, so maybe this is, too.”

“Good thinking, Dean.” Sam put his chin in his palm, pursing his lips to think again.

“It’s gotta be shapeshifters,” Brady suddenly piped up.

“Shapeshifters?” Dean asked with a smidgen of doubt.

“Yeah, you know, like people who can turn into animals or other people. That sort of thing.”

“Skinwalkers,” Cas whispered. Dean looked at him. “Humans who are also dogs, they’re called skinwalkers,” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“What do you know about them?” Sam asked.

He shrugged. “Not very much. I came across something about them in a book one time. They can be any kind of dog generally, from a poodle to a wolfdog.”

“Are they like werewolves or something? Like full moon and eating people kind of thing?” Dean’s mind was whirring with the new information, seeing it fit in a lot of ways.

Cas shook his head. “Not in that sense, no. They can change forms whenever they want, I think, and as humans they still have a good sense of smell and hearing.”

Dean thought back to when he’d been spying on the other boys and they had all turned like they’d smelled him at the same time when the breeze blew by. He shivered slightly just thinking about how creepy it had been. “Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually.”

“So we’ve got a freaking ghost dog haunting the grounds and three skinwalkers who’ve got it out for us. Fantastic.” Brady huffed and brooded silently as Sam laughed and Jess cracked a smile. 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Terribly sorry this took so long to put up! But I have the rest of the story planned and it just needs to be written so hopefully it won't take near as long for the next chapter.
> 
> P.S. Writing Michael in this scene just felt too much like Lucifer, and I have to be honest that I almost wish I had switched their parts, but because it's Dean as the main guy, it needed to be Michael and I just love that personality style as someone after him.. so forgive the serious OOCness of everything

The end of the week passed quickly and Dean found himself with another free Saturday. He spent it with his little group of sleuthing friends as they simultaneously attempted to have some fun at the lake and tried to figure out what to do with their situation.

Dean had an uneasy feeling about the skinwalkers that slowly increased as he saw them throughout the day with their little puppy Al and more the next day. Unfortunately for Dean, he couldn’t sneak out anymore at night to follow them since Gwen was keeping a close eye on both him and Sam and making sure none of them could escape curfew.

Nothing happened, however, in regards to the skinwalkers, and life at camp went on uninhibited for nearly a week. It was halfway into week four when Dean finally grew tired of waiting for the other boys to make a move. He was sick of constantly looking over his shoulder and hovering over Cas and Sam in the hopes that they wouldn’t be hurt. They were all out by the obstacle courses, climbing trees, and Dean was watching.

His friends had noticed him growing increasingly touchy to the point where Jess and Brady didn’t even dare to approach him without Sam or Cas, and even with one or both of them, Dean never calmed. Dean himself was spacing out at that particular moment, having found a comfortable seat on the top branches of a tree that had a nice view over the surrounding area. It was only when he heard a commotion below that his attention was forced to focus.

Cas was on the ground below the tree and Sam was climbing down fast to get to him. Knowing immediately that something had happened, Dean pushed away his tense thoughts and maneuvered his way through the branches and down to reach his boyfriend.

“What happened?” he asked breathlessly as he reached the ground.

“I fell,” Cas replied, now sitting, one leg drawn up where his hands where cradling it. Dean kneeled beside him.

“What’s the damage?”

“I twisted my ankle…” Cas winced when Dean prodded at it experimentally and saw that it was swelling up just slightly.

“You’ll have to get it wrapped and stay off of it for the rest of today at least,” Dean said with a quiet sigh, wanting to chastise him but knowing it was pointless. Instead, he stood and pulled Cas to his feet, motioning for Sam to help him. Together they held Cas between them and headed towards the main buildings where they could get first aid for Cas.

“Dean, I can walk on my own,” Cas protested as they started off.

“It’s not a good idea to push it, Cas.” Dean was back to his irritated state, most of the concern he’d just shown was gone once again.

Sighing resignedly, Cas let the boys support him and they made it to the main area without a hitch where Gwen saw them and led the trio inside the mess hall before heading to some back room and grabbing an first aid kit.

“Should I stay or…?” Sam asked hesitantly, standing to the side when Dean sat Cas on one of the benches and took the seat beside him.

“No, it’s fine,” was all Dean replied. Sam shared a look with Cas before taking off back the way they came. “You get hurt anywhere else?” Dean asked softly, not meeting Cas’ eyes.

The other boy shook his head. “No.”

Gwen returned to them shortly and gingerly took off Cas’ shoe, prodding at his ankle. “It’s just twisted a bit,” she said in a slight sigh, taking out a wrap from the first aid kit sitting beside her. “Rest up today and you should be okay tomorrow, but take it easy.”

Cas nodded somberly and Dean helped him to his feet, taking the shoe that Gwen offered and leading him outside again. He held out his arm slightly for Cas to balance on. They went back to 7A and Dean set his shoe by the door as Cas limped to his bunk.

“You need anything?” Dean asked once his boyfriend was sitting comfortably. “I can stick around for a while… if you want.”

Cas shook his head. “No, it’s fine. Go tell Sam I’m alright and… have fun or something.” Cas was looking at the floor with a decidedly dejected gaze. Dean moved to stand in front of him and lifted Cas’ chin with a brush of his fingers.

“Okay,” he said quietly, knowing it was futile to argue that there was no way he would have fun knowing Cas had to stay inside because he was hurt. Instead, he just bent down and planted a soft kiss on Cas’ mouth. “Be careful, ‘kay? I don’t want you getting more hurt.”

Cas blessed him with a small smile. “’Kay.”

Reluctantly, Dean returned to his brother and Brady, who both had worried eyes. “Is he okay?” they asked in unison.

Normally, Dean would have found it funny, but he just nodded with a grim set to his lips. “Yeah. He just twisted his ankle. He’ll be fine.” There was a collective breath of relief.

Dean suddenly felt a pair of unnervingly familiar eyes on him and looked around until he saw Michael. The other boy smiled knowingly and moved towards him. They stayed in each other’s eyes and Michael’s posse passed Deans, though neither said a word.

Crowley hung back a little and sent a smirk that seemed to be directed to Brady, though his words were for Dean. “Give Cassie my regards…” he muttered. Dean just glared.

“That was… weird,” Sam mused quietly when the three boys were alone again.

“Understatement of the year,” Brady replied. Sam half-smiled, but the irritated look on Dean’s face wiped it away fast.

“They’re planning something, I just know it.”

“Calm down, Dean. It’s not like they can do much against us here.”

Despite his brother’s words, Dean continued to stare after Michael until they disappeared into a crowd of other kids, leaving him with a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

* * *

 

The rest of the day would see Dean as more paranoid than usual. He was never like that. Never too wary or too afraid of what could happen, and everyone could see it was taking a toll on him. He kept looking over his shoulder and watching out for Michael, getting distracted from whatever he was in the middle of, be it a conversation or just retying his shoe.

That evening, the little group had their customary time by a campfire and it was nearly curfew when they disbanded, all walking to drop off Jess safely and then the boys separating to their respective cabins. When Dean and Cas arrived at 7A, Dean suddenly didn’t want to go inside. He was too wound up to sleep and he knew that being cooped up when he was like that was never a good idea.

So he left Cas there once more with a kiss and a promise to be safe as he snuck into the trees and went for a nighttime stroll. He made it to where the trees became sand near the lake and stopped, leaning into the shadows and resting his back to a tree, content to breathe the warm air and watch the ripples on the water.

It felt like he’d only closed his eyes for two seconds before something warm and solid suddenly had him pinned to the tree by his forearms.

Dean’s eyes snapped open and took in the glittering menace that filled Michael’s. Immediately, his instincts told him to fight, but just the grip on his arms betrayed just how strong Michael really was. Plus, it seemed like Michael wasn’t going to be letting him go anytime soon.

The other boy had his body far too close for comfort and his knee was pushing into the tree between Dean’s legs, effectively holding him in place. Dean didn’t even attempt a struggle, but poured as much hatred into his gaze as he could.

“What do you want?” Dean asked through clenched teeth.

“Cutting right to the chase, aren’t we?” Michael gave a short laugh in the back of his throat that sounded too much like a growl for Dean’s liking.

“You said you would leave me alone.”

He seemed to consider this for a moment. “I lied.”

“Just tell me what the fuck you want, Michael.”

“Easy, easy,” Michael said in a mockingly soothing voice. “Don’t be so harsh, or I may have to tell my brother to hurt yours. Or maybe I’ll let Crowley break a few bones in little Brady’s body. Or I could even have them go after your beloved little _Cas_.” He spit out the name like poison, lip curling unattractively.

How the hell had Dean ever thought he was attractive in the first place? Maybe at first glance… but inside, he was the ugliest son of a bitch Dean had ever had the unpleasant experience to meet. And how here he was, trapped by this jerk who was making threats against…

“You’re lying. You couldn’t hurt them.”

Michael made a _tsk_ ing noise. “I could. That’s not to say I would, however, if you were to cooperate. Either way, they’re all under guard at the moment so it wouldn’t take more than a few words for your precious little Sammy’s bones to snap as we stand here right now.”

“They wouldn’t let themselves get caught so easily.” Dean was in a state of denial that he knew deep down was ridiculous and pointless, but Michael just _couldn’t_ have gotten away with that, surely.

“I assure you, my boys are more than capable of handling two children and an injured weakling.”

“Someone will notice. The counselors will be told, they’ll find out. They’ll call the police or—”

“You really think the police can stop me?”

Dean paused. “Because you’re a skinwalker.”

“I’m impressed,” Michael said, though he looked like he’d expected Dean to already know.

“So what is it you want from me, then?”

Michael leaned forward, his grip on Dean never once wavering. His nose brushed Dean’s cheek and his breath tickled his ear. “I like you, Dean. And do you know what I do with things I like?” Dean didn’t answer. “I _take_ them,” he growled.

Dean shuddered against his own will. For the first time, he was truly _afraid_. He thought he’d be able to handle Michael before, but when he was actually face to face with him, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop him alone. He wouldn’t be able to do anything. Anything at all.

As if he sensed the fear in Dean, Michael pressed his body just a little closer, just enough for Dean to start feeling suffocated and really, utterly trapped. Dean had just enough coherent thought to think of a few questions in the hopes of maybe stalling him.

“You’re, like, a teenager, though,” he said with a slight stutter. Michael was slowly rubbing his cheek on Dean’s jaw.

“Actually, I’m not. Skinwalkers age a little differently than humans, plus I look far younger than I really am.”

“Oh. Great,” Dean muttered. Not only was he about to be “ _taken_ ” by a skinwalker, but this skinwalker was older than him and somehow that didn’t make the situation any better at all. “How do you think you can pull this off?”

Michael uttered another low laugh and pulled away slightly to look at him. He took one of his hands back and Dean almost, for just a moment, thought that maybe he was letting him up. Then darkness stole his vision as his head was bashed forcefully back into the tree. He fell limp, and immediately lost consciousness, the sound of Michael’s laugh following him into the black.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be expecting lots of POV changes this chapter and the next.

Jess knew something was wrong as soon as she glanced out of her window one last time before getting ready for bed. Most of the other girls were asleep though it was just curfew; she was in a cabin with mostly younger girls though there were a couple of older ones mixed in. As she lay in her bed, though, Jess tried to figure out what she could do.

She knew that it was no ordinary shadow that she had glimpsed as it tailed after Sam and Brady, her two good friends. What it was doing and what it meant, she had no idea, but there was a sinking feeling in her gut that told her she needed to do something. And fast.

And so it was, when she heard most of the girls’ breathing deep and low, a few snores, she slid out of her bed and pulled on her sneakers and a light jacket, grabbing her torch from under her pillow. As silently as she could, she stepped towards the door and slipped outside, sending a quick prayer that no one would wake or see her. Her prayer was heard and she made it into the cool night air without a hitch. Immediately she headed towards 3A.

On the way, though, she started to have second thoughts. She had no idea what she was up against, though her instincts told her it was probably the skinwalkers. Even so, she didn’t know how to deal with them. So, just to be safe, she took the long way to 3A, passing by the mess hall and happily finding the doors unlocked. Jess tip-toed through the dark hall and into the kitchen, easily finding what she was looking for: a knife. It was short enough to be easy to handle but long enough and sharp enough to deal some damage should it come to that.

Jess hoped she wouldn’t have to use it.

Finally, she made it to 3A and was slightly deterred, not knowing how to figure out if the boys were in there or not. As she was contemplating how to go about waking up all the boys, she heard muffled sounds echo slightly. Glancing around, it seemed like they’d come from the path to the amphitheater. Taking the only lead she had, Jess followed the path, clinging to the shadows and flicking off her light in order to hide. She had to walk for about five minutes before she came across a small light arching through the darkness.

Lingering by the trees, Jess made her way towards the little clearing on the edge of the camp, where there was a little fire burning that gave off just enough light for her to see two figures. One was slumped against a tree stump while the other paced erratically by the fire. It was obvious that Luke was agitated, and Jess could see it lit up on his face. She couldn’t tell from where she was, though, who was on the ground.

It didn’t matter anyway, because Jess quietly snuck around to the other side of Luke and searched through the bits of underbrush around her. She found what she wanted and carefully stuck the knife and torch into her back pocket before hefting the heavy branch into her hands. It was hard to hold, but it would do the trick.

Jess had just stepped into the clearing when Luke spun around, surprised to see her standing there. She smiled.

“Hey,” she said quietly and swung.

Luke collapsed into the dirt and she dropped the branch on him for good measure before running to who she now identified as Sam. Taking out the knife, she cut the rope that was binding his hands behind his back and slapped him a time or two to get him to wake up. Slowly, he came back into consciousness.

“Sam, Sam! We’ve gotta go, come on!” Jess muttered in the hopes that he would get up faster. She glanced over her shoulder, momentarily relieved to see Luke still passed out.

“Uhn… Jess? What happened?” Sam asked groggily, letting her pull him to his feet.

“Doesn’t matter, we need to run. Now!” Jess hissed, glancing at Luke again and dismayed to see him already stirring. “Come ON!”

Sam stumbled after her, and Jess kept her hand wrapped around his wrist to pull him along, once again praying that maybe, somehow, they would make it out alive.

* * *

 

Dean’s head rolled slightly as he started to wake. A small groan escaped his lips at the soft pounding in his head. When his eyes opened, he was mildly surprised to find himself in some sort of rinky-dink shack, tied to a chair by his wrists and ankles. He struggled for a moment, but the bonds were too tight for him to move nearly at all. He was also a little distressed to find himself shirtless with the cool night air caressing the skin of his chest.

“Finally, you’re awake,” a light voice purred to his right.

Dean’s head twisted to see Michael stepping in from the shadows. He was clad in dark, tight clothes, unlike anything he’d ever worn before around camp, and it made him look older and a little more terrifying, especially with that smirk of his. Not wanting to give him any satisfaction, Dean managed to stay silent and held back his questions and bitter feelings. Michael just kept on smiling and stood before Dean who watched him with defiant eyes.

“I get the feeling you’re not going to cooperate with me, Dean,” he said in a low tone. The skinwalker leaned down and put his hands over Dean’s wrists on the armrests of the chair, his face dangerously close. Still, Dean didn’t say a word.

Michael didn’t know any hint of irritation if he felt it, and instead he pulled back slightly to fit his legs into the spaces between the seat and armrests so that he was sitting on Dean’s lap. “What do I have to give you,” he whispered into Dean’s ear, “to get you to do what I say?”

To say that Dean was uncomfortable with the closeness coupled with Michael’s hands resting on his shoulders was a wild understatement. Even so, he systematically shut himself down and tried to stay calm. “Answer my questions,” he replied easily. He half hoped to stall Michael, but he was genuinely curious about a few things, too.

“Ask away.”

Dean tried, really tried, not to get distracted by the way Michael’s hands were moving over his skin, but it was tough, even for him. “Why me?”

The skinwalker laughed. “Why not? You were a challenge. I liked that.”

“How did you manage to get into camp, anyway?”

“It’s not hard to fake a few records when you know how.”

“How… how many other people…?” Dean couldn’t even finish the question, but Michael knew.

“Counting you? I think this makes nine. I lose track of things like that easily, though. You should ask Luke, he remembers them all better than I do. After all, he’s been with me every time.”

“Why isn’t he now?”

“Someone had to make sure your little group can’t save you.” Michael made a mocking, pouting face.

“You don’t know that they won’t!” Dean retorted. He wished more than ever that his hands were free so he could sock this son of a bitch. He was sick of his games, sick of his touch, sick of how he was making Dean so angry and confused.

Again, Michael laughed. “I put all my faith into my boys. They won’t let me down.”

Dean didn’t know what to say in rebuttal, so he stayed silent. Michael didn’t seem to mind though and began to place open-mouthed kisses on Dean’s neck. Dean tried to think of another question, or think of anything to say, anything to do to make him stop. He couldn’t.

“You’re intoxicating…” Michael muttered into his ear before he bit down on his earlobe.

Dean was ashamed of the tiny sound that left his throat.

* * *

 

“You don’t need to just stand there staring at me forever. I can’t go much of anywhere,” Cas said in a sigh, glancing over the top of his book at Al, who was still standing by the door even though it had been nearly an hour since the other boy had rudely barged into the cabin and told him he was guarding him.

Al didn’t answer and crossed his arms. Cas just rolled his eyes and returned to his book. He wasn’t reading it, though, but he occasionally turned a page to make it seem like he was. Really, he was planning an escape. He couldn’t overpower Al, he knew that, but if he could somehow get the jump on him…

His train of thought was interrupted at the faint sound of pounding feet and a barking noise that sounded too deep to be just a regular dog. He sat up straight and Al eyed the door warily. Just when Cas was about to tell him to open the door and see what was going on, he opened it a crack and poked his head out a little.

Cas was tempted to sneak over and knock him while his back was turned, but a moment later he was glad he didn’t. He jumped to his feet as the door was brutally knocked open and something big pushed Al out of the way. Before them stood a snarling, gray wolfdog with deep amber eyes and sharp, yellowed fangs.

The wolfdog growled menacingly at Cas, who was standing stock still as his mind tried to process what was happening. He didn’t know which of the skinwalkers this was, but it didn’t matter because he needed to get out. Cas was moving before he’d fully thought out his plan. He ran to the door and things started happening in a blur.

Al shouted at him to stop and the dog snarled a warning sound before stepping forward and lunging towards him. Al, though, had moved forward after Cas and the dog landed almost directly on him, teeth latching onto his shoulder and dragging him down to the floor with a loud _thunk_.

Cas stumbled out the door and slammed it shut behind him. He barely even looked around before twisting and running around towards the back of the cabin. He hoped he could get far enough away before—

“Shit!” he swore as he slammed into something solid. Cas hit the ground on his ass, his ankle having given out though he’d stopped feeling pain from the adrenaline.

“Cas! Thank God!” Sam’s voice made him look up and he saw the younger boy and Jess standing before him. They both looked terrified, but glad to see him.

“What is happening?” Cas cried, his mind still racing.

“I’ll explain on the way. Come on, we’ve gotta go before Luke gets out!” Both of them held out their hands for Cas to grab onto and he was hauled to his feet. None of them spared a glance over their shoulders as they ran into the dark and took the path towards the lake.

“Who was with you?” Sam panted as they went.

“Alistair,” Cas replied, beginning to feel a little pain in his injured ankle again, but managing to ignore it for the most part.

“So Crowley probably has Brady.”

“Where’s Dean?” Cas glanced over to see Sam shake his head.

“I think Michael got him.”

“How did you two get away?”

Sam grinned as Jess said, “They didn’t count on me.”

They were all quiet again before they finally reached the edge of the trees by the lake. “Do you know where Brady is?” Cas asked as they slowed to a walk, all looking out for signs of Luke.

“I think he’s probably over on this side, because Luke had me by the amphitheater.”

“Should we split up?” Jess asked hesitantly.

Cas looked back the way they came. “No. We need to stay together.”

“Let’s check around the other side of the lake, where Dean said he saw them before.”

“Good idea.”

The trio set off at a jog around the lake, hoping that maybe they could find him and that they wouldn’t be killed in the process.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some OOCness in Dean this chapter but it's all to show a point. And Cas ain't taking shit from nobody. Just fair warning.

“You do know that deep, deep down, you’re actually enjoying this,” Michael muttered into Dean’s skin. “I gave you what you wanted. You ought to just let it happen, now.”

“No,” Dean replied quietly with a hard set to his jaw.

“No?” Michael pulled back to meet his defiant eyes. “You don’t get to say ‘no’ to me, Dean.”

The human smirked slightly. “No.”

He felt more than heard the growl vibrating through Michael and didn’t lower his gaze until the skinwalker slapped him across the cheek. Hard. Dean tasted blood but he just looked back at his captor. He was tempted to say something else, something that would get him even more riled up, but he knew that it wouldn’t do anything to stop what was already in motion at that point.

Michael gripped his shoulders tightly, fingers digging into the muscles and his voice was a low growl as he spoke. “You’re lucky I want you in good shape before I fuck you, Dean Winchester, or else you would be in so much pain…” He let the threat fill the empty air.

Dean gave a short laugh and replied, “Then do it.”

He was tired of Michael’s games, after nearly four weeks and a whole load of frustration. Whatever Michael was going to do, Dean was ready because he wanted it all to just be over. He wanted to make sure that his friends were safe, his brother… Cas. And to do that he needed to give Michael what he wanted, even if it hurt him, broke him, killed him. He would do it. He would make it difficult and he would defy Michael whenever he could, but he would do it.

* * *

 

They found him in a clearing sitting on an unconscious Crowley and nursing what seemed like a broken hand. Jess and Sam threw themselves at their friend and held him tight. Jess looked over his injury and Cas took off the wrap still around his ankle to be put to better use around Brady’s hand. Cas had too much adrenaline in his blood to care too much about his own pains.

Sam picked up the discarded ropes that lay on the ground and started to tie up Crowley, asking Brady how in hell he’d beaten this guy.

“Well, he didn’t do a great job knocking me out and I woke up before he’d tied my hands so I fought him off and managed to get him hard enough apparently. It broke my hand, though, but it was so worth it.” Brady grinned.

“What should we do with him,” Sam asked, turning to Cas, who had suddenly become the leader of the group since he was oldest.

Cas looked thoughtful for a moment. “He might know where Michael took Dean.”

“So… are you saying we should…?”

“Yes.”

Sam raised his brows but shrugged. “Help me tie him to this tree, then.” Cas and Sam together dragged Crowley to a nearby pine and wrapped the rest of the rope that wasn’t around his wrists around the trunk to hold him in place. “How do we wake him up?”

Cas grimaced slightly and knelt beside the unconscious boy. He slapped him roughly and the sound echoed slightly around them. Crowley sprung into wakefulness and looked around wildly for a moment before his gaze settled on Cas.

“Great,” he muttered irritably. “I suppose you want me to answer your stupid questions now.”

“Where is Michael?”

“I’m not going to tell you.” Crowley gave him a childish smirk that quickly faded when Cas backhanded him.

Sam looked at him in mild surprise. Cas’ blue eyes had grown cold and hard and there was a grim set to his full lips that unnerved the younger boy. He turned to Jess and saw that she was deliberately looking away from everything else that was happening. Sam sat beside her and Brady and she leaned into his shoulder as Brady patted her arm. Jess wasn’t weak by any means, but Sam understood that she didn’t want to see this, especially because it was Cas. Cas who always seemed so calm and had that shy smile of his that made everything seem just a little brighter. Cas their friend.

Cas who now had in his hand the front of Crowley’s shirt as he pulled his face near and threatened things that the trio couldn’t hear. But they heard the sharp smack that followed and the laugh that fell from Crowley’s lips.

Sam shut his eyes and rested his head on Jess’, thinking that the sooner Crowley broke, the better off they would be.

* * *

 

“It’s too bad you’re little boyfriend isn’t here right now… I would _love_ to see his face,” Michael said in a contemplative voice.

“You could always call your goons and have them bring him,” Dean replied in a bored tone. He tried as hard as he could not to show it outwardly, but he really hoped that Michael would not make that happen. He couldn’t bear it if Cas saw him.

Michael just laughed. “Now wouldn’t you like that?” He gave a smirk. “No, I think I’ll keep you to myself tonight.”

Faint relief filled the breath Dean slowly let out. “You know, I’ve been wondering something. Wouldn’t it be easier to do this… somewhere else?”

“Well, well. Eager, are we?”

“Not particularly. But it doesn’t seem to me like you’d want to do this sort of thing… on a chair.”

Michael’s mouth twitched into a smile. “Very observant of you. But I hadn’t really planned to move this anywhere for a while… unless you’re willing to cooperate now, of course.”

Dean met his eyes with a cold seriousness. “It’s not like I have much choice.”

“Not even going to fight me?” The skinwalker looked a little taken aback and it was Dean’s turn to smile a little, though it was bitter and filled with sadness.

“I don’t have a proper reason to.”

“Dean Winchester, giving up just like that. This is a pleasant surprise…” Michael made a little laughing noise in his throat. “Oh, but we haven’t even gotten to the good parts.”

Dean’s stomach twisted as he asked, “The good parts?”

A gleeful smile took over his face as Michael told him, “There’s so much still in store for you, Dean.”

“Like what?” Dean asked, and was amazed at how steady his voice was despite his inner trepidation.

Instead of answering, though, Michael leaned in close enough that Dean could feel his breath on his lips. “The question is, will do what I tell you now?” Fearing another episode would come about if he said “no”, Dean stayed silent and Michael took it as an acceptable answer. He grabbed Dean’s chin with a tight grip and smiled. “Good,” he said quietly before claiming Dean’s mouth with his own.

Dean’s eyes screwed shut and he immediately tensed to pull away, but some part of his brain was shouting at him. _Play along, damn it, Dean, play along and they’ll be safe._ He forced himself to relax and let Michael do what he wanted, which seemed to be an attempt to shove his tongue down Dean’s throat.

Feeling sick to his stomach, Dean let him in and even responded slightly, receiving an appreciative hum from Michael. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy it at least a little bit. And that just made it all the worse.

* * *

 

A low laugh bubbled up from Crowley and a bit of blood dribbled from the side of his mouth. “When will you get it? I’ll die before I tell you.”

Cas scowled at him, getting more and more frustrated by the second with this piece of shit. “Fine,” he growled through bared teeth. Standing, he went back to his three companions and stood before Jess. “Give me the knife.”

Sam stared up at him. “You’re letting him go?”

Cas just shook his head. “Jess, please,” he pleaded in a quieter voice.

“Cas don’t! Look we can go back to camp and call the police and they can send out a search party for Dean and—”

Cas cut Sam off as he sharply said, “No. It might be too late by then.” He hated how the kid looked at him, with some fear and a little defiance, but mostly concern. “Jess, the knife.”

Jess raised her eyes and gazed at him with much the same expression. Wordlessly, she handed over the knife. He heard Sam call his name again but he was already moving back to Crowley who had watched the procession with interest.

“You can’t be serious—” Crowley started, but his words broke into a shout of pain as Cas sunk the knife into his shoulder where he knew he would miss everything major but would cause a lot of pain.

Cas didn’t even bat an eye at the action.

“Christ, I didn’t think you’d actually do it,” Crowley said breathlessly.

“Tell me where Dean is,” he said slowly and precisely “or I’ll make sure you can never move your arms again.”

There was actually a spot of fear in the skinwalker’s eyes but he didn’t say a word. Cas’ expression didn’t change as he pulled the knife out and rested the tip in the same place on the other side. When Crowley started another slow laugh, Cas pushed hard to get the knife through his skin. Crowley didn’t stop laughing, though, but it turned into a laugh of pain that almost hurt Cas’ heart to hear.

“There’s a cabin… about a mile north of here. That’s where you’ll find him,” Crowley finally spit out, looking pissed and in pain.

Cas took the knife back and wiped the blood off on Crowley’s shirt before standing straight and going back to his friends. “A mile north, there’s a cabin,” he said simply. Sam jumped to his feet.

“Let’s go,” Sam said, helping Jess up from where she was sitting. They all headed north, disappearing into the shadows of trees in the moonlight.

“You’re just going to leave me here?” Crowley shouted after them.

No one gave him the satisfaction of an answer.

* * *

 

Dean had no idea how long he’d been tied to that chair, but he was really starting to feel the tightness of the ropes as he was struggling to get out of the bonds. He didn’t want to escape, no, he knew he wouldn’t be able to, but he just wanted that chafing feeling gone. When Michael finally pulled away to let him breathe a little, he noticed immediately what Dean was doing.

“Going somewhere?” he asked in a firm voice that was smothered with amusement.

“No. But you could loosen these ropes a little,” Dean replied with slight bitterness. “You’re going to have to untie me eventually to get this show on the road.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Michael said calmly, eyeing Dean, who was trying to relax in an attempt to make the ropes not feel so tight. “But you promise you won’t make a run for it?” There was a smile hiding behind his words.

“Where would I go?” Dean replied seriously, conveying the truthfulness of his defeat in his eyes. He hated it. Hated giving up. Hated that he’d already surrendered and that there was no turning back. But he had to do it. _For them_.

“Besides, I can’t really go anywhere with you on top of me,” he added, eliciting a laugh from his captor. “And my legs are still tied, too.”

“And that’s how it will stay.” Michael deftly undid the knot holding down Dean’s left arm before moving to the other one. He put his hands on Dean’s wrists to hold them down for a moment more and he looked Dean straight in the eyes. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he told him in a low growl. Dean nodded.

As soon as his grip was gone, Dean flexed his hands and wrists, feeling immediately better with them free even though he knew he wasn’t free himself. Michael was watching him, and even though Dean had agreed that he wouldn’t do anything stupid, he sat up a little straighter and put his hands on Michael’s hips. The smallest of smirks was on his lips and Michael raised a brow at him.

His right hand lightly snuck up Michael’s body and to his neck. For a brief moment, he entertained the idea of choking Michael or hitting him or doing something… Instead, he threaded his fingers in the skinwalker’s hair and pulled him into a deep kiss.

He felt sick; he felt dirty and cheap. But he didn’t push Michael away.

It felt so inherently _wrong_.

But this, he could handle. This he could deal with. This, he promised himself, he would not feel guilty about later. If there even was a later.

And in his head, over and over, he silently prayed. _I’m sorry, Cas. Forgive me._

* * *

 

They ran when they could, and walked when they grew tired. Cas forgot about his ankle as he raced towards Dean. Every once in a while Brady would make a little whimper of pain and they would stop to make sure he was okay. Cas was half-tempted to tell him to head back to camp, but Luke was still out there somewhere and it was safer if they were all together and could protect each other.

As soon as he’d thought that, they saw it. The cabin.

It was dilapidated and looked abandoned, with a hole in the roof that moonlight was falling into. Cas ran a little faster, the knife still held in his hand, and when they were close enough, he gathered their little group into a huddle.

“Are we just going to storm in, guns blazing?” Sam asked, warily looking at the building.

“Metaphorically speaking, yes. It looks like the front door is right there, and it’s too small to have more than one big room.” Cas’ gaze raked over the area. “You two should probably find something to use as a weapon just in case, and Brady… you should probably stay out here, where it’s safe. In case something happens you can run back to camp.” Brady looked like he was about to protest, but at meeting Cas’ eyes, he nodded and looked away.

Sam found a couple of biggish sticks for himself and Jess and Cas led them towards the cabin, staying low and silent. When they reached the door, he couldn’t hear anything from within and he motioned for Jess and Sam to stay behind him. He counted down with his fingers before throwing open the door and jumping inside, knife held at the ready.

The scene laid out before him was not what he’d been expecting. But then, he hadn’t really known what to expect.

* * *

 

Michael had taken full advantage of Dean’s willingness and slowly began grinding his hips down onto Dean, drawing out a groan from the human that was unwanted on Dean’s part. But he hadn’t stopped.

The skinwalker was the one to break the kiss, letting Dean breathe for a moment as he moved his lips back to Dean’s neck. Dean hadn’t even attempted to stop his hands from moving subconsciously to Michael’s ass and holding him close.

He’d lost himself. Let himself forget that he was Dean Winchester and just believe that he was _human_ and had _human_ cravings and _human_ responses. It was purely human that his mouth and tongue responded eagerly to Michael’s and purely human that his hands roamed all over Michael’s lean body.

Dean Winchester came flooding back, though, when the door to the shack slammed open and he had to force his mouth away from Michael in order to look over and see Cas standing stock still with Jess and Sam close behind him. Michael was looking at the intrusion, too and Dean didn’t waste a thought into his actions, but brought his fist up to catch the skinwalker’s chin and then throw him off.

Surprisingly, it actually worked and Michael fell to the floor, stunned. Dean shouted Cas’ name and held out his hand, hoping Cas would understand. He did, and he ran forward to toss the knife at Dean, who caught it by the handle easily and immediately sawed off the ropes binding his legs. By the time he was done, though, Michael was on his feet and growling menacingly.

Dean jumped from the chair, dismayed by the stiffness in his body, but he still had enough movement left to dodge a punch from Michael. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop himself once he’d started moving and he fell to the floor in a heap of useless limbs. Michael turned away from him and towards Cas.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a snarl though the answer was obvious.

“Saving Dean,” Sam replied with bravado, stepping forward slightly.

Michael let out a mirthless laugh. “And you think you can stop me with just sticks?” He hunched over slightly and continued to laugh.

Meanwhile, Dean had pulled himself up from the floor and staggered closer. He held the knife in his fist and made to stab Michael in the back with it, but at the last second Michael turned and Dean missed. The skinwalker caught his hand and crushed it until he dropped the knife, but Dean had been expecting that and caught it with his other hand. He twisted awkwardly to drive it up and managed to slice into Michael’s side making him growl in pain.

Dean moved away as Michael let go of him. “The sticks are just a distraction. After all, I thought dogs liked to play fetch with sticks?” Dean gave a wide smirk as Michael tossed another punch at him. But he was hurt, bad, and was holding his side with one hand.

Cas and Sam moved up beside Dean and they backed Michael into a wall, literally. Realizing there was no way he could make it out like that, Michael bared his teeth. “This isn’t over yet,” he snapped before darting out from between them and changing.

His clothes ripped off and landed in tatters on the floor as his body curled in on itself and fur sprouted across his skin while claws erupted from his fingertips. His head shook and he let loose a wild bark as the transformation completed in less than a second. Taking just a moment to whip his bright gold eyes around and yap at them, he ran off, past Jess and out the door before anyone could say a word.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is the end! For now.... hehe. I have decided there is going to be a sequel, but it's going to take a while for me to write it and post it up, but it'll be coming in the future. 
> 
> I hope you've all enjoyed this and if you have any questions or anything you want addressed in the sequel, please let me know!

Dean had promised himself that he wouldn’t feel guilty. Told himself that he was doing all of it to save the ones he loved. He even tried to believe that he hadn’t really felt anything. That it was all just a natural reaction in that situation and there was nothing else he could have done.

He still felt overwhelming guilt as his eyes found Cas beside him after Michael had ungraciously exited.

“Dean!” Sam suddenly cried, dropping his glorified stick and attacking his brother in a hug. “You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah, kiddo, I’m fine,” Dean replied, returning the hug with relief that his brother, too, was safe. Jess went to them a little hesitantly and hugged him with a murmured “Thank God.”

Finally, Dean turned to his boyfriend—if he could still call him that—and found Cas staring at him with wide eyes. “Cas,” he began softly, hoping to convey just how guilty he felt. “I’m sorry, I—”

He broke off as Cas threw his arms around Dean’s neck and crushed him in an embrace. “You stupid _idiot_!” Cas hissed, burying his face into Dean’s skin. “I was so worried,” he added in a softer tone.

“I’m sorry, Cas. I’m sorry,” was all Dean could say, over and over, and after a minute he wasn’t quite sure what exactly he was apologizing for anyway. He was just so glad to have Cas back in his arms. Eventually, he let Cas go and turned to the other two. “We should go back to camp. Where’s Brady?”

“Outside. He broke his hand,” Sam replied, leading them all back out and calling out for Brady as they went.

“What the hell happened to you guys anyway? How did you get away?” Dean asked incredulously when they were all together.

“We’ll tell you on the way. We’ve got a while to walk,” his brother said mildly.

Jess told most of the story since she had been there the whole time through, and while they walked she had one hand in Sam’s and the other in Brady’s, the one that wasn’t broken of course. Dean and Cas walked in step, tightly clinging to the other’s hand with their shoulders brushing together. Dean still felt that horrible guilt, but for the moment he could put it away until he got the chance to talk to Cas about it.

They made it back to camp just fine and Dean wanted to go back to 7A to grab a shirt or something before they went to go wake up Gwen and explain the situation. It was then that Cas told him about Luke attacking Alistair and hesitantly they crept back to their cabin.

The door hung off its hinges and Cas was attached to Dean’s side as he pushed the door open a little to peer inside. The smell of blood assailed them and Dean saw the body before Cas did. There was blood _everywhere_ and it looked like one of the boy’s arms was severed from his body. Dean really couldn’t tell from that angle. He pulled Cas into his chest to hide his face and backed away, feeling sick. The others looked at him in confusion and Dean just shook his head. They all moved on to Gwen’s cabin, silent and exhausted.

Sam was the one to knock loudly on the door and it took a couple of minutes for Gwen to answer it. She looked tired and her hair was messy, but as soon as she saw them all huddled together, she ushered then inside and demanded to know what had happened. Before saying a word, Dean sat Cas down on a chair beside a table in the corner of the room. His ankle was obviously starting to hurt him, but it seemed that Cas didn’t want to be separated from Dean just yet so he leaned up against the desk and let Cas keep a hold of his hand.

“You might want to sit down for this,” was all the warning he gave Gwen before launching into the story of the skinwalkers. To say she was surprised was a grave understatement. Dean omitted what had happened to him specifically with Michael, but under the cabin lights it was easy to see the bruises marking his neck. He hoped that Gwen wouldn’t realize what they really were.

“So…” Gwen began when he was finished, “those three are gone now and we’ve got a death in your cabin. No one is going to believe it was skinwalkers though.”

“We could say they were wild wolves,” Sam suggested quietly from where he stood by Dean.

“I guess that’s the best option there is.” Gwen, who had perched on the edge of her bed when Dean started talking, got to her feet. “I’m calling the police. We’re going to have to send everyone home after this.” She sighed out a breath. “The phone is in the main office though, and I should probably get some first aid for you all.”

“We’ll come with you.” Sam leaned forward a little and Gwen nodded.

“I’ll stay with Cas. He shouldn’t be walking more than he needs to for now,” Dean said quietly, not looking at his boyfriend.

“One more thing, if they ask where you were, Dean and Castiel snuck out late and the rest of you came out after everything had already happened. Alright, come on you three.” Gwen left with the three younger kids toddling behind her. It would have been funny except they all looked grim and Brady was cradling his broken hand to protect it. Dean didn’t think he could ever laugh while feeling so horrible, either.

After the door had closed, there was silence for a long moment. Dean still didn’t look at Cas and he tried to focus on calming his ragged breathing. He could still feel the ghost of Michael’s mouth and hands and though he hated it with everything he had, there was that tiny part of him that missed the rawness of it all.

“Dean?” Cas finally asked, watching him with wide, worried eyes. When Dean didn’t answer he called his name again, softly, and Dean shook his head.

He let out a deep breath. “Cas… back there, I really thought that was the end. I thought I would never see you again and I had to… I told myself it’s because I was protecting you, because I had to give him what he wanted so that he wouldn’t hurt you.” Dean stopped, rubbing a hand over his face with a sigh. He’d been babbling on and didn’t really notice that Cas hadn’t said anything. He turned to look at him and saw that Cas was staring pointedly away, hands gripping the seat of the chair tightly. “Cas…”

“Dean I _saw_ you,” Cas suddenly said, quiet but harsh. “I saw you kissing him and your hands on him and…” He fell silent.

Trying to figure out what to say, Dean kneeled beside his boyfriend and looked up at him. “Cas, please, you have to believe me. It didn’t mean anything to me. He didn’t mean anything to me! I felt sick—I _feel_ sick, just thinking about it. I…”

His eyes met the floor. “I gave up… I told myself that I wouldn’t regret it, that I was doing it for you and for Sam, Jess and Brady. I said to myself that if I made it out alive, I wouldn’t feel… anything. But you have no idea how god-fucking-awful I feel.”

For the first time in a very long time, he, Dean Winchester, was actually about to cry.

He felt Cas put a hand on his head and he raised his eyes to see Cas looking at him with a mixture of pity and sorrow, his anger draining away at the broken expression in Dean’s eyes.

“It’s okay, Dean,” Cas said quietly, gently touching his hair. “I understand.” His fingers continued to run through his hair as Dean put his arms across Cas’ legs and rested his head down, barely putting up a fight against the tidal wave of emotions he was experiencing.

He didn’t stop the few tears that started trickling down his cheeks. He just held on to the one thing that could hold him in place at that moment, and Cas understood.

In that moment, they had just each other.

. . .

It wasn’t too long before Gwen and the others returned to Gwen’s cabin, saying that the police were on their way and they were unfortunately going to wake up the whole camp. Gwen left them all there with the promise to stay put while she went out to warn the rest of the adults and try to keep mass hysteria from ensuing. Before leaving, though, she told them all that she would try her best to keep what had happened a secret so that they wouldn’t have to deal with much political hoopla.

Dean’s face had been covered once again with his metaphorical mask, but he didn’t leave Cas’ side, not even for a moment, and there was at least one part of them touching at all times. Dean would never admit it out loud, but he craved the comfort of love that Cas gave, and he knew he needed to reassure Cas after everything that had happened. If the others noticed anything, they didn’t bring it up, and their whole group was mostly silent as the night progressed and sirens arrived. It was around two a.m. when Gwen came back, followed by a couple of police officers.

“Hey, kids,” Gwen greeted them tiredly. “These officers need to ask a couple of questions. Are you okay with that?” She directed the question at Cas and Dean, who both just nodded tightly.

Dean got to his feet from where he’d been sitting beside Cas and put a hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. The first officer stepped forward and gestured to himself and his partner while saying, “I’m Officer Turner and this is my partner, Officer Mills. We need to ask where you all were a few hours ago when this happened.”

“Dean and I left our cabin around ten and we went to the lake to hang out for a while. We went back about midnight and saw…” Cas trailed off and Dean squeezed his shoulder a little bit.

“Did you see anything, hear anything while you were out?” Officer Mills asked, her voice professional though she seemed sympathetic.

Dean shook his head. “No.”

“What about you three?” Officer Mills turned to Sam and the others.

“We were in our cabins. Brady and I in 3A and Jess in 11B,” Sam said quietly.

“After Cas and I got back,” Dean started, searching for a good alibi, “I didn’t know what to do so I went and got my brother.”

“What happened to your hand, son?” Officer Turner asked Brady suddenly, obviously having noticed the bandage around his hand.

“Oh, I, uh, I fell,” Brady said sheepishly. “I’m kind of klutzy.”

“I accidentally tripped him,” Cas added, gesturing faintly to his ankle which was also sporting a wrap.

“You two should probably get checked out before morning,” Officer Mills told them.

“Do you… do you know what did it?” Cas looked so genuinely curious and scared that Dean almost said something in surprise, but he stopped himself in time.

Officer Mills shook her head. “Not yet. Probably wolves.” She glanced at Gwen and then her partner. “I think that’s all we need for now from you all for now. If you remember anything, give us a call. We’ll be in touch.” She handed a couple of cards to Gwen, and the two officers took their leave.

“That was sufficiently awkward,” Brady said with a sigh and a tense smile.

“What’s gonna happen now?” Dean asked, turning to Gwen.

“I’m sending out calls to everyone’s parents and hopefully they’ll all be here in the morning. In the meantime, I’m getting everyone together in the mess hall, you included.” Gwen let out a sigh and pushed her hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry you kids had to deal with this crap.”

“What’ll happen to us?” Jess asked softly.

“Life will go on, I guess. There’s not much else to do.”

“What about Michael and the others?” Sam stood up, glancing at his brother.

“We can’t really do anything about that either. We’ll just have to hope that they stay away for good.” Gwen moved forward to put her hand on Sam’s shoulder. She looked at them all. “Come on, let’s head to the mess hall.”

* * *

 

Morning came quietly and Officer Mills once again went to Cas and Dean, but this time to bring them a little good news. The crime scene of their cabin had been cleared out most of the way and the boys’ things gathered to be returned to them. Dean accepted his duffel and Cas mumbled thanks for them both. Mills gave them an empathetic smile and they returned to the ever smaller group of campers waiting for their parents.

It was nearly ten by the time Mary and John Winchester pulled up to take their boys home. They’d been at Bobby’s still so it had taken them much longer to get there, and only the Winchester boys and Cas were left at the ground besides all of the counselors, who had to stay to take care of the camp’s business.

When he saw his parents, Dean almost felt like crying again, and when his mother wrapped him up in her arms, he gratefully soaked in the smell of pie and flowers that always followed her around. It was only when they were shoving the boys’ bags into the car that Dean thought to ask Cas how he was going to get home.

Cas just shrugged. “I don’t know how late my father has to stay…”

“We could take you home,” John suggested.

Sam brightened just a little. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

“I’m not so sure…”

“Where’s your dad? We’ll introduce ourselves,” John went on, having already made up his mind.

Dean gave him a shrug and a smile and had to refrain from taking his hand as Cas led them all to the main building where they figured everyone would be. They weren’t disappointed and Zach saw his son almost immediately, leaving a group of the other adults to greet him.

“Castiel. It’s still going to be a couple of hours…” he trailed off as he noticed Dean and his family. “Ah, hello.”

“John Winchester,” John said, holding out his hand and shaking Zach’s. “This is my wife, Mary, and I’m sure you know our boys. Dean’s been your son’s cabin mate here, too.”

“Zachariah Novak.” He gave Cas a funny look but waited for the Winchesters to say something else.

“We heard you have to stick around here for a while still and we’re heading home now, so we thought we could take Cas home while you’re stuck here. If you don’t want him home alone, he’s welcome to stay for dinner tonight, too,” Mary told him with a warm smile.

Zach looked a little taken aback. “I don’t want him to be any trouble to you—”

“It won’t be any trouble at all.” John put a hand on Sam’s shoulder.

Cas’ father looked at him and Cas just shrugged. “Well, alright. I appreciate the offer. Hopefully I can be home around dinnertime at the latest.”

Rummaging in her purse, Mary pulled out a little notepad and pen. “Here, I’ll give you our number and address.”

As his mother gave their information to Zach, Dean pulled Cas a little to the side. “You don’t mind, right? Us taking you home?”

“No, it’s alright. It’ll give me more time to spend with you.” Cas laughed quietly. “It’s going to be strange, being without you every night.”

“Yeah, I feel the same,” Dean replied a little sadly. “We’re still gonna hang out though all the time right? And we have school together.”

“Of course. We won’t have any classes… but we’ll figure it out.” Cas smiled and Dean really wanted to kiss him, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to while they were around their parents. It would have to wait until they got home.

Sam went over to them and had a worried look on his face that sent a little wave of panic through Dean. “What are we gonna tell them about what happened last night?”

“Shit, I didn’t even think of that,” Dean grumbled. “They probably don’t know it was our cabin, so maybe we won’t have to say anything.”

“And if they ask?”

“We’ll say what we told the police. Best to keep the stories straight anyway.” Dean glanced between them “Right?”

“You boys ready?” John suddenly said to all of them.

“Yep,” Sam said, turning quickly. Dean looked at Cas, who nodded his assent, and they all headed to the Impala.

They all got settled in, Cas in the middle in the backseat with his hand in Dean’s hidden from his parents’ view. John tried to make small talk about their time at camp, and Dean looked through the window back at the camp as they drove away. Between a couple of trees, he could have sworn he saw a black dog with red eyes.

He blinked and it was gone.

.

.

.

_They all stared at Sam in awe. The fire had burned a bit low and they all were starting to feel the cool air of night. Garth had quit eating marshmallows quite a while ago and Chuck hadn’t interrupted for the last half of the story. Even Jo was looking shell-shocked. Gabe was curled up into Sam and holding onto his arm tightly, like a child._

_“What happened to Michael and those skinwalkers?” Ash finally asked into the silence._

_Sam chuckled softly. “That’s a story for another time. It’s almost curfew, now, though.”_

_“Will you tell us tomorrow?” Gabe looked up at Sam._

_“Yeah! I wanna know what happens to Dean,” Garth added._

_“I’ll think about it. Someone help me put the fire out,” Sam told them all, standing. They were like little kids sitting around for story time in kindergarten and Sam had to fight back a laugh. Jo was the one to stand and help him toss some dirt over the flame to put it out._

_“Is that really a true story?” she asked skeptically._

_Sam just replied in an eerie voice, “If you want to know, ask Dean.”_

_Jo glared at him, but inside even she was a little shook up. They all returned to their cabins a bit scared and a bit excited to hear the next part of the story…_


	15. This is a note!

Hey everyone! I'm just putting this back out there because there's a ton of you subscribed to this, but only a few following The Way of Change...

Just some notes in case you are hesitant on reading the sequel:

TWoC is definitely a much darker fic than SiC7A. There's a whole lot of weird and a whole lot of dark that makes it get WAY more in depth than SiC7A ever was. Some people have asked questions for things to be answered that I have (or have plans to) incorporate into the sequel, and it gets pretty deep in explaining characters feelings a lot. The point of view for TwoC switches somewhat regularly between Dean and Cas, but I've been trying to make it so that it's not confusing... so hopefully it's not. There will be more non-con stuff (of course), but there's also a rape-y part (it is not going to be explicit, it's more implied that it happened. Actually, pretty much everything in the sequel that is remotely sexual is implied more than explicit...). Also, the Dean in the sequel is what makes it so dark, because he gets all... for lack of a better term, fucked up in the head (I'm so terrible to him, honestly what's wrong with me). And.. that's about it. See the actual fic for more warnings and stuff.

Thanks everyone for your support with SiC7A and I hope you enjoy TWoC!

 

Click [ here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/802527/chapters/1512850) to read it!


End file.
